Voter turnout in Erie County this year appeared to be on track to rival the turnout four years ago, in the last sheriff race.
With 98% of precincts reporting by 11 p.m., nearly 210,000 ballots had been counted in the sheriff's race. Four years ago, 219,067 people voted for sheriff.
But the turnout in this year's four-way race was still far short of the modern record, set in 2005, when 249,689 people voted in Sheriff Timothy Howard's first campaign for the job.
The more than 57,000 votes cast in the Buffalo mayor’s race, with 97% of the vote counted as of 11 p.m., was the highest vote in that race since 2005, the year Byron W. Brown won his first term. That year 73,073 voters cast ballots in the mayor's race.
