EDWARDSVILLE - As many as 90,000 people flocked to the polls throughout Madison County Tuesday, Madison County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza said. 

Ming-Mendoza said Tuesday's numbers added to the early voting and vote-by-mail numbers equal 130,830 voters in the county casting their ballots. She said 71.8 percent of voters in Madison County took part in this year's election. She said she is still accepting vote-by-mail ballots, assuming they were postmarked by Nov. 8, until Nov. 22. The full canvas must be done by Nov. 29. Until then, none of the races in Madison County are official. 

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Despite the massive amount of people voting Tuesday, Ming-Mendoza said the entire process went very smoothly. 

"I am not sure about long lines besides at SIUE," she said Wednesday morning. "It was steady and constant without any lulls. The precincts I've been able to talk to were just busy, but not swamped. Everything went well, considering an estimated 90,000 people went to the polls yesterday." 

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While the votes are not official yet, many of the races have already been called. One item, however, is much closer than the others - the consolidation of the Wood River/Hartford, East Alton and East Alton Wood River High School Districts into a community unit school district. 

The push for consolidation appears to have been voted down by a mere nine votes, a similar margin to when it was contested in 2015 and was voted down by seven. When asked if it required a recount, Ming-Mendoza said that matter would be dependent on the losing side opening a motion for discovery. Nothing of that nature can happen until the votes are canvassed and made official. 

"We're still processing vote-by-mail ballots and provisional ballots from Election Day," Ming-Mendoza said. "We also have to do the mandatory retab through the state board of elections. We'll be busy." 

Ming-Mendoza said the work following Election Day is steady and does not include the stress of preparing for and working through the second Tuesday in November. 

"It's not like we have a couple weeks of reelection," she said. "We just don't have the stress and buildup of Election Day. We still have many days of work before the filing of the canvas." 

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