Due to the high number of absentee ballots, final votes for races weren’t expected to be tallied until after 11 p.m., according to Catherine Fanello, chair of the St. Joseph County Election Board. She estimated there were about 22,000 absentee ballots; the previous midterm election, by contrast, drew about 9,000.

On Tuesday, voters waited to get in the door 15 minutes before the poll opened at 6 a.m. at Pinhook Park in South Bend, starting off a modest line that persisted for the next few hours, inspector Paul Tipps said.

It was the busiest he’d seen, as of mid-morning, over the past five or six elections that he’s worked at this site. Polls across St. Joseph County saw higher vote totals, County Clerk Terri Rethlake said, with 54,764 votes on Tuesday as of about 3 p.m., plus 22,619 who’d cast their votes early.