By Rod Boshart

Read the original article at The Gazette Online.

DES MOINES — From the White House to the Statehouse, Tuesday's election races up and down the ballot brought Iowans to the polls in record numbers.

Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro, a Democrat who also is state election commissioner, said Wednesday the number of Iowans voting early or traditionally on Election Day topped 1,524,000 — a total that eclipsed the 2004 record of 1,521,966 and likely will go higher when counts of absentee and provisional ballots are finalized.

"I think it was a great turnout for the election that we had, and it did beat what we had in '04," Mauro said.

Preliminary estimates indicate about 72 percent of the more than 2.1 million Iowans who were registered to vote participated — below the 80.5 percent participation rate in 1992. But Mauro said that figure may change when the general election results are certified by county officials next week.

That more than one-third of the 2008 election participants voted early or absentee helped "take some pressure off the lines" at Iowa polling places, Mauro added. Overall, he said, the voting process, use of some new voting machines and same-day registration generally went well.

"I think democracy is alive and well, and the people sent a statement about how they feel," he said.

Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford said the record number of early and absentee voters made it difficult to get an accurate picture initially of voting trends.

Overall, he said, exit polls didn't point to a strong youth turnout in Iowa, but that could be hidden in the early voting numbers. There were more Republicans who defected to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama than Democrats who voted for GOP rival Sen. John McCain.

McCain scored well with older Iowans, but Goldford said Obama "creamed" McCain among independents en route to mustering 53.8 percent of Iowa ballots and the state's seven electoral votes. According to the unofficial tally released by Mauro's office, Obama polled 819,670 Iowa ballots to 678,466 for McCain, or 44.5 percent.

Nationally, the Student PIRGs New Voters Project estimated young voters this year surged by at least 2.2 million votes over 2004.

A separate group, Women's Voices Women Vote, reported that nationally, 70 percent of unmarried women voters supported Obama, while married women narrowly supported McCain over Obama.