Maryland officials say the state set a record number of vote

election news —- yesterday was the last day to vote early in maryland. and maryland officials say the state saw a record number of voters casting ballots early. local experts say this type of turnout is likely predictive of a big day next tuesday. 47 abc’s justina coronel has the details. track 1 more than 800,000 people turned out at polls during early voting in maryland — setting a record — and almost doubling the number of early voters in the 2012 election. it also means over 20 percent of the state’s registered voters –will have cast ballots before election day itself. the election director of wicomico county gives a lot of the credit to expanded access. with the number of days and hours increasing it is definitely the most number of voters we’ve had during a early voting period in wicomico county. track 2 from a local perspective — wicomico county had 11-thousand four-hundred voters in early voting compared to 64-hundred four years ago. that means 11,000 wicomico county voters will not be standing in line on election day. in wicomico county particularly with a 2-page ballot and 11 ballot questions. the better prepared our voters are before they go to the polling place the quicker those lines are going to move. track 3 in somerset county –polling stations saw over 27-hundred voters — while dorchester welcomed 38-hundred — which is a 46-percent increase. salisbury university political science professor sarah surak tells 47 abc that in the past several elections — a big turnout for early voting — usually indicates a big turnout on election day itself. we tend to see high rates of early voting correlating with high rates of citizen interest of votingon the election so i expect that we’ll see high rates of election voting as well in the state of maryland. track 4 and with maryland voters exercising their right to vote by almost double since the last general election — voters are clearly showing they believe this election is crucial. this election is important because we see, it will definitely shape our, the next four to eight years in substantial ways. for example the new president coming in will immediately be appointing a new supreme court justice, which has a very long term implication way after they’re in office. track 5 justina coronel, 47 abc. to vote on election day– hours will be between 7 a-m and 8 p-m. to see the list of voting locations across delmarva– head over to our website at 47 abc dot com. coming up – local teens get their election fix