UPDATE: Minneapolis announces record voter turnout in 2020 election

Kyle Brown
[KSTP]

UPDATE: The city of Minneapolis on Wednesday announced a voter turnout record in the 2020 election.

More than 237,000 ballots were cast in the city. While the final number may still change, an estimated, unofficial total of 237,689 ballots were cast in the election, including more than 170,000 absentee ballots.

Those numbers mean that 80.6% of registered voters in the city participated in the election.

In comparison, a total of 219,832 ballots were cast in the city in the 2016 presidential election, which was the previous record. In 2016, 60,538 ballots were cast early.

Minneapolis has set a new record for votes cast in an election — with hours left until polls close.

According to Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services, an estimated 228,903 voters cast their ballots as of 5 p.m. The vast majority of those — nearly 166,000 — were absentee ballots.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey congratulated the city for breaking the record it set in 2016 and encouraged those who hadn’t voted yet to make their way to the poll before they close at 8 p.m.