MADISON, WI (Wisconsin Radio Network) - Despite record early voting in the state, fewer voters than expected cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.
According to unofficial results for Wisconsin from the Associated Press, about 2.9 million votes were cast in both the presidential and U.S. Senate races. The state Elections Commission says that amounts to a turnout of about 66.2 percent of the state’s voting age population of 4.4 million people.
The numbers are far short of the 3.1 million voters the agency had initially projected, and about 133,000 ballots less than those cast during the 2012 presidential election.
Official vote totals for the state are expected in early December.
Early voting the state smashed the previous record, with 828,451 absentee ballots counted as of Wednesday morning. About 28 percent of all ballots in the state were cast using absentee options, compared to just over 21 percent in 2012.