Tuesday turnout looks like a record

Iowa’s Commissioner of Elections, Chet Culver, says it looks like it’ll be an historic turnout Tuesday once all the final voter totals are in. Culver says the record was 1982 and we should surpass that all-time high of over one-million-50-thousand people cast votes. He says it appears over sixty-percent of the registered voters went to the polls, the results are still coming in and counties will do a final count on absentee ballots Thursday. He says voter turnout usually isn’t as high in non-presidential elections.He says the turnout in off-year elections is usually 50-percent. Culver says 72-percent of registered voters turned out for the 2000 presidential election, which should put Iowa among the top states for turnout in the last two election cycles. Culver says redistricting created a lot contested races and led in part to the big turnout. He says 40-percent of the legislature will be new, and says Iowa was recently named as the most competitive state for races in this election. Even with the record turnout, Culver says he heard few reports of problems at the polls.Culver says it will take awhile before they’re able to break down the voter numbers by age and party to get a closer look at who turned out.