Voters braved a heat wave, including triple-digit temperatures in Southern Nevada, to cast their ballots Tuesday in a primary election that featured several high-profile and contentious races, eclipsing turnout numbers from the last three cycles.

A little under a quarter of registered voters showed up to the polls, the highest percentage since the 2010 primary, when voters turned out en masse to choose a Republican to challenge Harry Reid for his U.S. Senate seat. This year, voters had a chance to weigh in on primaries for the gubernatorial race, including a fiery Democratic battle, and two competitive congressional races.

The 23 percent voter turnout this year surpassed that of the prior three cycles, in which primary turnout hovered around 19 percent. On the high end over that time period, 19.2 percent of voters cast ballots in 2014, and on the low end, 18.5 percent did so in 2016.

The final breakdown of primary votes by party hadn’t been released by the secretary of state Wednesday afternoon. But, according to early data reported Tuesday night, Republicans had turned out a slightly higher percentage of their voters to the primary polls this year, but just barely, and in terms of raw numbers, Democrats were ahead by about 7,700 ballots cast.

Historically, a smaller percentage of registered Democrats turns out to the polls than registered Republicans. But this year, Democrats had an opportunity to decide whether to send the more moderate Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak or the more progressive Chris Giunchigliani, a Clark County commissioner and a former assemblywoman, to a matchup against Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt on the November ballot.

Democratic voter Dawn Gilchrist, who was at Downtown Summerlin voting with her daughter on Friday, told The Nevada Independent that she identified with the messages Sisolak projected through his commercials during the primary.

“I was like ‘I’m all about it.’ He is a stand-up man and he wants to, he is going to stand up against the Man,” said Gilchrist, clad in a pink t-shirt that read, “I stand with Planned Parenthood.”

Voters in Clark County also had an opportunity to weigh in on two contested congressional primaries — on the Republican side in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District and on the Democratic side in the 4th. Roughly 20 percent of voters in Clark County turned out to the polls this year, more than the roughly 16 percent that turned out in the three previous primary elections.

Southern Nevada voters had greater flexibility this year about where they could vote. Clark County debuted 172 voting centers, allowing people to stray from their precincts and cast ballots wherever most convenient.

The voting centers included the places you might expect — libraries, recreation centers, churches, schools and a few retail locations — but the numbers show a clear preference among voters. Shopping centers proved to be the most popular option, with Centennial Center snagging the most voters (2,030) followed by Sunset at Galleria (1,952). Overall, schools welcomed fewer voters during the course of the day. The quietest voting center was Mark Fine Elementary School, located in the southwest valley, which only logged 57 voters.

The Washoe County ballot gave voters plenty of reasons to show up Tuesday, boasting primaries for several races including the mayor and city council in both Reno and Sparks and several county commission seats. Twenty-seven percent of registered voters in Washoe cast votes in the primary election, up from 23 percent in 2014 but still less than the 34 percent turnout in 2010.

“We are up almost 15 percent over 2014 midterm so we’re very happy about that,” said Washoe County Registrar Deanna Spikula.

All the state’s rural counties posted larger turnout numbers this cycle as well. Five of those counties — Douglas, Esmeralda, Eureka, Storey and White Pine — drew more voters this year than during the 2010 primary election, although some were by slim margins. Esmeralda County, for instance, recorded 20 more voters this year.

How the primary momentum translates to the general election remains to be seen, but past voting patterns could offer some clues. The most realistic indicator might be 2010 based on the competitiveness of that primary and the turnout size.

Roughly 30 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the primary that year, when November rolled around, nearly 65 percent of voters participated.

Voter numbers from a financial perspective

Sisolak was forced to almost empty out his considerable campaign war chest to defeat Giunchigliani and spent more dollars per vote than any other major gubernatorial candidate.

According to a tally by The Nevada Independent, Sisolak spent about $90.69 for each of his 72,726 votes, with total spending on ads and consultants between January 2017 and the primary election reaching nearly $6.6 million. That total was far above the spending reported by Giunchigliani, who spent $1.2 million on ads and consultants for her 56,491 votes, or about $22.21 per voter.

Laxalt received the biggest bang for his buck, shelling out roughly $1.3 million on ads and consultants over the past year and a half, which resulted in about $13.06 spent for each of his 101,617 votes.

Schwartz, who largely self-funded his campaign, reported spending more than $634,000 in advertising and consultants, meaning he spent about $49.12 for each of the 12,916 votes he received in his losing bid.