AUGUSTA – Voters eager to have their say on the Indian casino and other referendum issues shattered Maine’s turnout record for an off-year election, according to the latest unofficial figures available Wednesday.

Tallies from 97 percent of Maine’s precincts show more than 506,000 votes were cast Tuesday in the casino referendum, by many estimates the most provocative item on the six-question state ballot.

That accounts for about 50 percent of Maine’s voter age population, which the state pegs at just over 1 million.

“We’re thrilled, not just for ourselves, but for the state,” said Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky, Maine’s top election official.

Gwadosky said everything was in place for a big turnout, including a high absentee ballot count and having an emotional issue before voters.

“If there’s an emotional issue out there, Maine people tend to show up,” said Gwadosky.

The 50 percent turnout, which could increase as more complete figures come in, is well above Maine’s 44.5 percent record for an off-year election, according to election officials. The record was set in 1987 when a question about whether to close the Maine Yankee atomic plant was on the ballot. Voters decided to keep the plant, which has since been decommissioned, operating.

Political science Professor Richard Maiman acknowledged that the 50 percent figure is high for an off-year election, but said it is nothing to throw a party over.

“I remain unimpressed with the 50 percent figure,” said Maiman, of the University of Southern Maine. “The glass is still only half-full, and low compared to a presidential election.”

Maine’s modern turnout record, 73 percent, was set in the 1992 election in which Bill Clinton was elected to his first presidential term. Maine also posted the nation’s best turnout figures in the 1996 presidential election, and missed the top spot by less than 2 percentage points in 2000. In Maine’s off-year elections, the average turnout has been 33 percent since 1971, election officials said.

Tuesday’s 50 percent beat participation figures during at least two gubernatorial elections in Maine.

The 50 percent was even higher than a dozen states posted during the 2000 presidential election, according to Gwadosky’s office.

Voters likely were prompted to cast ballots in high numbers Tuesday by the combination of a polarizing issue – casino gambling – and heavy advertising, Maiman said. A record $10 million was spent by the two sides in the casino debate.

Gwadosky said the nature of issues on the ballot and “some pretty sophisticated get-out-the-vote efforts” also played parts in Tuesday’s heavy turnout.

But he said the state has done its part in encouraging more people to vote, such as allowing same-day registration and allowing absentee ballots for any reason. In Sanford, where the casino likely would have been built, officials said they signed up more than 600 new voters in the two days leading up to the election.

Gwadosky did not speculate whether Tuesday’s turnout may represent a trend, but said, “It bodes well for everything we talk to young people about.”

The casino question was the only one rejected outright by voters on Tuesday. A proposal calling for 55 percent state funding for public schools was kept alive but fell well short of voter enactment, setting the stage for a runoff vote.

A proposal to allow slot machines at commercial harness racing tracks passed, as did three bond issues totaling $89.3 million.

AP-ES-11-05-03 1745EST