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Maryland Voters Hit Polls in Record Numbers

Don Rush

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland elections board officials say voter turnout for this week's presidential primary has hit a new high in recent decades.

Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator of the state elections board, said Wednesday about 1.6 million people cast ballots during early voting and on Election Day. That's about 46 percent of registered voters.

Since 1980, the previous high for voter turnout in Maryland for a presidential primary was in 2008, when 43 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

Maryland had voter turnout of about 45 percent in the 1982 primary for a governor's race, which wasn't a presidential primary year.

Unlike in recent years, Maryland's primary this year came as the presidential primaries are still unresolved.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.