SAUGUS – Despite the fact that Town Clerk Joanne Rappa’s phone began ringing at 6:05 a.m., Election Day went remarkably smooth with the highest turnout Rappa has seen in her 12 years on the job.”Voter turnout was 78.99 percent, just about 80 percent,” she said. “I thought it would be closer to 90 percent. I expected it to be a little higher because it’s been so crazy in the office.”Crazy was pretty much exactly how Marianne Moses, who works in the clerk’s office, described the day. For Moses this was her first presidential election. She said the phone started ringing a little after 6 a.m. with residents asking where they were supposed to vote and what time the polls opened.”I thought February was crazy with the primary,” she said.Rappa said the early morning phone calls made her cringe, but only because she worried that it would be a poll worker calling in sick or word that a polling location was on fire.None of that happened, although Rappa did get a cringe-worthy call last week when a long-time poll worker, a warden in precinct 8, called to tell Rappa she wouldn’t be able to man her post.”She fell at work and broke both arms and her nose,” Rappa said. “But she still showed up at the poll.”Rappa said the worker came in Tuesday morning to help her replacement get set up and stayed a few hours. Later that night she returned to help close out the poll. She said that kind of dedication was typical of her poll workers and that she received a lot of help from all over town in regard to getting what she deemed a very successful election off the ground.With 13,459 voters, Rappa said she was thrilled with the turnout. Nearly 76 percent of registered voters turned out for the 2004 presidential election. Although the 2004 showing was only slightly less than Tuesday’s event, Rappa noted that given its historic nature Tuesday’s election was more impressive.She didn’t get a chance to really absorb the event until she finally made it home around 11:30 p.m. Rappa said it was only then that she could unwind just in time to see President-elect Barack Obama deliver his acceptance speech.”It just makes me so proud that we could be a part of such an historic event,” she said. “I sounded like such a nerd but I kept telling my daughter that, that this is an historic event.”And now that it’s over, “we can sleep,” she said. “It’s a huge relief now we can sit back and enjoy life again.”