Like the rest of the country, voters in Wright Co. came out to make their voices heard in record numbers Tuesday. By the close of the polls 80,774 residents had cast their votes, representing 92.5 percent of the registered voters at the start of the day.

In the City of Clearwater, City Administrator Annita Smythe said voting was way up and pretty steady throughout the day. By the time polls closed, 764 voters had come to the polls, standing in a line that led outside the doors of the polling place for the first hour and a half of the morning.

The scene was the same in Clearwater Twp., with residents standing in line long before polls opened up to cast their vote. By the time doors opened at 7 a.m., the line of voters led down the township hall’s driveway.

By 8 p.m., 740 township residents had voted in person, along with another approximately 200 absentee voters who had voted by mail. Township voting officials registered 60 new voters.

First time voter James Mcauley, who turned 18 just a month and a half earlier, was one of the day’s voters.

“I was looking forward to voting,” he said. “Once I realized I would be able to I started paying attention to the news and other places to get ready to vote.”

Over in Stearns Co., Lynden Twp. also saw large numbers of voters, with a line leading around the room, out the door and down the driveway for much of the morning. The line was back in the late afternoon.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Head Judge Barry Hample. “There hasn’t been a time when it wasn’t steady busy.”

By the time polls closed, 858 voters out of the 1,301 registered had voted in person, with the county reporting another approximately 322 absentee votes received.