Mass. officially sets election turnout record

BOSTON -- Secretary of State William Galvin has put an exclamation point on the state's record voter turnout earlier this month.

He says final ballot counts show more than 3.1 million Massachusetts voters went to the polls in the Nov. 4 presidential election -- eclipsing the previous record of 2.93 million.

Galvin notes that while about half the state's total population voted that day, there were few problems at the polls.

In a statement Thursday, Galvin said President-elect Barack Obama won Massachusetts with 1.9 million votes, compared with 1.1 million for Republican John McCain. That translates to a margin of victory of 62 percent to 36 percent.

Massachusetts has 12 electoral votes.

Sen. John F. Kerry won a fifth term after receiving 1.98 million votes, compared with 926,000 for Republican Jeff Beatty.

Of the three ballot questions, the first proposing to eliminate the state income tax lost 2.07 million to 914,000, while one proposing to legalize marijuana was approved 1.95 million to 1.04 million and a third to ban dog racing won by a margin of 1.66 million to 1.3 million.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)