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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The numbers are in for the amount of Massachusetts residents that turned out to the polls for November's election, and it is much larger than state officials anticipated.
With election results certified, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said 2,508,298 voters casted their ballots in the Massachusetts State Election— a 51.4 percent voter turnout of those registered to vote in the state. According to voting numbers the Secretary's Office sent to WBZ NewsRadio, that's a total only passed by the 2018 State Election, which had 2,752,665 participating voters.
“While we unfortunately didn’t set a new record this year, I am pleased to report that the overall voter turnout did my own exceed expectations for this election— I’m delighted to have been wrong,” Galvin said.
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Galvin predicted there would be around 2.2 million voters turning up to the state election, a forecast he based on the amount of mail ballot returns, early votes, and general interest. The actual number exceeded Galvin's prediction by about 300,000, largely because of an unexpected turnout at the polls on Election Day.
Though in-person voting was the majority for the state, mail in voting still proves to be a popular choice— just under one million voters, or 37.4 percent of overall turnout, sent in their ballots.
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