Wow. Talk about a wacky debut.

Here I am just getting started on this blog, but now I’m going to have to take a time out for a couple of weeks while recovering from surgery.

We’ll resume this adventure when I get back.

Voter turnout in Tuesday’s primary election was a little on the light side, to say the least.

Only 5.2 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Quincy’s municipal elections. Relatively scant interest was shown because Election Day featured just two races — the matchup between Dave Bellis and Roger Davis for the Republican nomination for mayor and the contest between Dave Bauer and Leo Mueller for the Democratic nomination for 2nd Ward alderman.

Bellis handily beat Davis 1,046 to 68 to earn a shot at the incumbent mayor, Democrat John Spring, in the April 7 general election. Meanwhile, Bauer, the incumbent 2nd Ward alderman, walloped Mueller 190 to 53 and now gets a chance to face Republican newcomer William “Bill” Hrudicka in April.

According to a Herald-Whig analysis of precinct-by-precinct election returns, the average turnout in 50 Quincy precincts where votes were cast was 5.2 percent. That means out of 26,324 people who could have voted, just 1,374 showed up.

It’s no wonder why.

Republicans, despite having a keen interest in the mayor’s race, stayed home in droves because many people correctly figured Bellis was a shoo-in for the nomination. So why bother to come out? Bellis grabbed 93.9 percent of the vote, which has to be one of the biggest victory margins in local election history.

In some precincts where the Republican nomination for mayor was the only item on the ballot, the turnout was embarrassingly light. For example, in Quincy’s Precinct 42, which has 553 registered voters, all of six people stepped forward to cast ballots — a turnout of 1.08 percent. All six votes went to Bellis.

Almost as dismal was Precinct 6, which had a 1.18 percent turnout. Out of 422 eligible voters, five went to their polling place to cast four votes for Bellis, one for Davis.

Understandably, most precincts with the biggest turnout were in the 2nd Ward, because people there at least had a choice of whether to vote in either the Republican primary for mayor or the Democratic primary for alderman.

The precinct with the single largest turnout — 12.74 percent — was Precinct 4, where 53 of the 416 eligible voters cast ballots. In the particular precinct, Bellis outpolled Davis 20-2 while Bauer beat Mueller 22-9.

Bauer won all eight precincts comprising the 2nd Ward, which had a combined voter turnout of 7.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Bellis beat Davis in all 50 precincts. In fact, Davis received zero votes in 19 locations.

Although Bauer and Mueller live across the street from each other in the 1600 block of Chestnut, they vote in different 2nd Ward precincts. Chestnut Street is the dividing line between Mueller’s Precinct 9 on the north and Bauer’s Precinct 13 on the south. Bauer won his own precinct 43-2, but he also captured Mueller’s precinct 36-12.

Those two precincts finished in the top four for turnout, with Precinct 9 showing a 10.58 percent turnout while Precinct 13 had 10.45 percent.

OK, let’s get one thing straight from the start.

Contrary to popular local myth, this is the first time I have blogged for public consumption. I have never put together a Web page dedicated to myself. I have never invited anyone to be my friend on My Space.

This, right here, is my Web coming-out party. Did you hear that champagne cork hit the ceiling?

I realize this might surprise some of you who have been conned into believing I’ve been blogging and Webbing and My Spacing for years. I just want you to know all that stuff you may have seen in the past was simply the work of fun-loving impostors putting up gibberish with my name on it. It was all a bunch of hooey.

This — what you are reading now — is the only blog I have written or will be writing, at least for the time being. So if you want to know what’s going on in the sometimes-addled brain of Ed Husar of The Quincy Herald-Whig, this is the only place to look.

This blog will be devoted primarily to notes and observations about the doings of Quincy city government and Adams County government, but it also will include political tidbits and occasional rants about state and federal government. I also reserve the right to jump off track from time and time and delve into other topics that may interest my fellow denizens of the Mississippi River valley.

We’ll get started shortly. See you around the cyber campfire.