A highly publicized raced between Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard and challenger Rick Sharp helped bring out the most voters ever for a municipal primary election in Carmel.

There were 15,220 GOP primary voters for the 2015 race.

Election experts say the only primary race with a larger turnout was 2008 with 18,240 total voters, but that was for the presidential races and not city offices.

That year, 10,008 Democratic primary voters showed up to choose between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as neither had locked up the nomination yet.

Sen. John McCain was the presumed nominee at that point for the Republicans and only 8,232 Republican voters showed up. Usually Indiana’s primary is late enough that it doesn’t have a chance to decide presidentially nominees.

Some wondered before the election if more voters would change the percentages for incumbent Brainard. Instead they held steady compared to past elections.

For 2015, 66.78 percent of the 22,792 GOP Primary voters showed up to vote and 27.81 percent of the 54,715 total registered voters participated in the races, which had no Democrat candidates.

Brainard won with 62.72 percent of the voter and 15,200 total votes, compared to a 62 percent victory in 2011, a 59.5 percent win in 2007 and a 65 percent win in 2003.

There were 600 absentee ballots cast in the 2011 primary and 1,160 cast in the 2015 primary, with Brainard winning the absentee votes with 56 percent.