A total of 6,576 people came out to vote on Election Day in Stanly County, which accounted for about 15 percent of all registered voters. When added to the tally of people who already participated in early voting and voting by mail, Stanly had a total turnout of roughly 79 percent.

The vote total exceeded Wayne Sasser’s expectations. The Republican House member, who easily won reelection after running unopposed for District 67, had predicted that 32,000 people would come out to vote. The total was actually 33,785.

“That speaks volumes for Stanly County,” he said. “That really makes me feel good that that many people in Stanly County were involved.”

The voting numbers are based on unofficial election results compiled by the Stanly County Board of Elections. The final county canvass of results will be completed on Friday. There are also 68 absentee ballots which will be processed along with any ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by 5 p.m. Thursday, according to Kimberly Blackwelder, director of elections for the county.

Stanly also has approximately 400 absentee by-mail ballots that could still be counted. The number includes all outstanding absentee by-mail ballots for which voters did not vote in person during the early voting period from Oct. 15–31. An additional 319 provisional ballots were cast in the election, though not all will be counted. It will depend on whether the voters were qualified to vote.

The turnout this year was significantly higher than in past presidential elections. During the election in 2016, for example, 30,096 people voted in Stanly, which represented almost 74 percent of the total electorate.

Statewide, roughly 75 percent of all registered voters cast ballots during the election. The 5.49 million people who voted in this year’s election was higher than each of the previous three presidential elections, according to data from the North Carolina Board of Elections website. In 2016, for instance, a total of 4.77 million people voted.

Across the country, an estimated 160 million people have voted, according to data from the United States Election Project.