Early voting tops 340,000 at La. polls

The number of early voters topped the 340,000 mark, hitting a record in advance of Tuesday’s election, the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office reported Wednesday.

Early voting, which began Oct. 23, ended Tuesday evening with long lines of people at some polling places as the 6 p.m. deadline approached. Those in line at 6 p.m. got to vote.

State elections officials estimated that the early voting surpassed by 25 percent or more the numbers for the 2008 presidential election.

Louisiana has about 2.9 million registered voters eligible to go to the polls for Tuesday’s election in which the race for president tops the ballot.

East Baton Rouge led the state’s 64 parishes with 32,046 people who chose to vote early. A hotly contested mayor’s race plus Metro Council and judicial elections are also in the offing, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Orleans registered 28,519 early voters, followed by St. Tammany with 26,899 and Jefferson with 22,788, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.