The most happening spot of the day had to be the one-block stretch of New Seward Highway between Benson and Northern Lights Boulevards. Most all the major political candidates and hundreds of their supporters covered all corners and both medians so drivers could run a veritable gauntlet of sign-waving, cheering enthusiasts, urging them to vote.

Bill Walker and Jay Ramras showed up in the exact same shirt. Light blue, slight pattern. They posed together and joked about what a great team they'd make -- Walker as governor, Ramras as lite gov -- since they apparently have the same taste in clothes.

Current Gov. Sean Parnell's red T-shirt-clad crowd picked the shady corner -- southwest Benson -- and after several hours in Tuesday's glorious Alaska sun were glad of it.

GOP lieutenant governor contender Mead Treadwell was -- where else -- in the median. He noted that 90,000 cars a day are reported to drive by that very intersection. "One of the jokes is that politicians don't want to fix this road because they want the cars to go slow and see the signs," he said.

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Longshot Republican U.S. House candidate Sheldon Fisher kept his small crew on the Northern Lights end of the median. It was possibly the noisiest,  horn-honking spot.

Ethan Berkowitz waved an orange-and-white campaign sign from the north corner of Fred Meyer's. "We're making plans for what we're going to do tomorrow," he quipped, already eying the general election run that, at least on a sunny late afternoon, he was confident he'd be making.

His competition, Hollis French, actually set up a sign-waving shop on the corner of Northern Lights and Minnesota. "I live here," he said, pointing west toward his Turnagain neighborhood. "There are a lot of Democrats who go by here."

But the coolest political rally of all had to be Don Young's, sharing the median with Mead Treadwell. Young wasn't there, but his batch of sign-carrying supporters came equipped with a small boombox that blasted "old school hip hop." Even Mead's preppie crew was rocking the corner to the "Jock Jam" CD.

How is Alaska voter turnout?

Election officials, who took an unofficial temperature of their own, reported low turnout by noon but were hoping it picked up after work. In 2006, the last statewide primary with a governor's race, turnout settled in at about 30 percent. As of noon Tuesday, turnout was less than 20 percent, said state elections chief Gail Fenumiai.

Still, officials are working to release the first results by 9 p.m., about an hour after the polls close. Those numbers will include most of early voting ballots cast in recent days (about 4,400 total as of Monday.)

By the end of the night, Fenumiai hopes to have 100 percent of precincts reporting although absentee and questioned ballots will still need to be vetted and counted. A second count will come Aug. 31, but the result will still be unofficial until mid-September when the final tally is certified after it goes through the state review board, she said.