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Ken Kreitzer found a new fix this year.

"I've been locked in," said Kreitzer, 53, a retired correctional officer at Tuesday's Republican primary at the Hangar at the Wharf Ballroom. "I've been like a news junkie. And it's all because of the presidential election."

It also was because Alaska's rules changed. The Alaska Republican party had its first binding primary vote ever last night.

In a preliminary tally of Juneau votes, Mitt Romney took the lead with 266, or 55 percent of the total. Mike Huckabee came in second with 76 votes, or 16 percent. John McCain was third with 73 votes, or 15 percent, and Ron Paul took fourth with 65, or 13 percent.

The final numbers had not been tallied because Republicans allowed people to vote outside their resident districts. Aside from the 482 registered Juneau residents, another 102 people voted in Juneau. After counting the ballots, the primary's organizers called in the out-of-towners' vote numbers to each of the districts where they belonged. Organizer Paulette Simpson, president of the Alaska Federation of Republican Women, estimated that 95 percent of Juneau voters voted in town.

"We had people lined up at 4 o'clock to vote," Simpson said.

McCain won 15 percent; he wasn't expected by many Republicans to be popular in the state, given his opposition to earmarks and drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"To have a Republican in the White House that's against ANWR, I think there's a visceral Alaskan reaction to that," said Jacqueline Tupou, a Romney supporter and organizer.

Alaska was expected to be a Ron Paul stronghold, though he won just 13 percent of the Republican vote in Juneau. He brought out some voters who said they never cared about voting before.

"I am thrilled. I thought I was alone in the political world," said 26-year-old Trevor Sutcliffe, a jewelry salesman, who had just voted for the first time.

The Republican primary was not a caucus, which is a public event, but a "presidential preference poll." Delegates are assigned to campaigns proportionate to the voters' choices. Alaska will send 29 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, 26 of whose votes are decided by the proportions candidates win in the primary.

In the past, delegates weren't bound by a primary vote, though a straw poll was held in 1996.

This time, the Juneau Republican organizers expected a rush. They planned for 400 ballots, which would be about 10 percent of the party members in Juneau. They needed 482 by the end.

"It's more interesting coming out when you feel like you have a voice in the national election," said April Gilbert, 31, a Mitt Romney supporter who is a stay-at-home mom.

Benjamin Brown, co-chairman of the Capital City Republicans, said he'd spent a lot of time putting out basic information. A lot of people were confused about the new primary system.

"So many people went to the regular polling places thinking this was like a state election," he said.

Some people said they went to both primaries. Chelsea Gagnon, 19, an undecided college student, had come from the Democratic primary at Centennial Hall.

"This one definitely seemed more organized," she said.

Monika Kunat, 18, a student, also tried out both, though she said she registered as a Republican to vote for Ron Paul.

"There, it seemed like people already knew what they wanted," she said of the Democratic caucus. She enjoyed its style and openness, she said. "There was more of a sense of unity, of community."

• Contact reporter Kate Golden at 523-2276 or kate.golden@juneauempire.com.