Remaining ballots expected to be counted today will tell whether local voter turnout breaks records.

Unofficial results show 19,649 voters cast ballots at Warren County’s 22 precincts Tuesday, reflecting 53.1 percent of the names listed on poll books.

With an estimated 1,800 absentee and affidavit ballots still to be accounted for, total voter participation could exceed 21,000 people.

The number of votes cast has flirted with the 20,000-mark in the five elections dating to 1988, but had not surpassed it.

Area counties also reported high turnouts, reaching 62 percent in Claiborne County and 56 percent in Issaquena. Similar figures for Sharkey County were incomplete this morning.

Statewide, unofficial tabulations show about 1.2 million Mississippians voted in this year’s elections — trending toward a record turnout. About 1.89 million were registered heading into Tuesday’s voting.

Nationally, independent surveys showed turnout hovering around 64 percent among the voting-age public. If the number holds up, this year will have surpassed 2004 by 6 points and show the highest turnout since the Kennedy-Nixon contest of 1960.

Percentage figures are clouded by the fact that in some counties and states the names enrolled on poll books more accurately reflect the actually number of resident adults 18 and older who have enrolled. A canvass earlier this year by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann indicated that in a third of Mississippi counties the names listed on poll books outnumbered the U.S. Census totals of the eligible population. Warren was among those counties.

The Mississippi Legislature has authorized a statewide system of voter rolls, but counties still list thousands of names of people who have died or who have moved to other jurisdictions without canceling their previous registrations.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.