Poll workers at the North Elba Town House in Saranac Lake sign in a voter on Election Day, Tuesday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Voter turnout across New York’s 21st Congressional District was high this year.

Between the Election Day voting, early voting and absentee ballots received so far in this pandemic year, about 72% of active registered voters cast ballots in this election — up by about 1% from the 2016 presidential election and up 13% from the 2018 midterm congressional election.

There are 432,954 active registered voters across the 21st District, according to the state Board of Elections. With 489 of 531 districts (92%) reporting as of Wednesday afternoon, at least 259,657 ballots had been cast in person. On top of that, a total of 68,164 absentee ballots were requested across the district, with at least 55,802 returned.

During the 2016 election, when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton for president and Rep. Elise Stefanik defended her seat against Democratic challenger Mike Derrick and Green Party candidate Matt Funiciello, nearly 71% of 406,198 active registered voters cast ballots.

In Essex and Franklin counties as well, more voters in have cast ballots this year than in the last presidential election year.

So far, 77.7% of Essex County’s 24,687 active registered voters cast ballots, and in Franklin County, 71.2% of 26,794 active registered voters cast ballots.

Between in-person voting on Election Day, votes cast during the nine-day early voting period and absentee ballots received by Tuesday afternoon, 19,201 Essex County residents cast ballots this year, according to uncertified election results from the state Board of Elections. That’s an increase in voter turnout of more than 9%.

In Franklin County, 19,087 residents cast ballots, an increase of about 11% over 2016.

A total of 4,758 absentee ballots were requested by Essex County voters, and as of Tuesday afternoon, 3,886 had been returned. A total of 4,400 Franklin County voters requested absentee ballots, and 3,597 were returned as of Tuesday evening. Absentee ballots only needed to be postmarked by today, not received today, so the total number of votes may rise when the election is certified.

Election officials have said they will not start counting absentee ballots until Nov. 12. The deadline for the board of election to receive these ballots is Nov. 10, but since the 11th is Veterans Day, they will not begin until the 12th.

Military and federal absentee ballots will be collected until Nov. 16.