The recent general election brought record voter turnout figures, with Dallas County as no exception.

According to Dallas County Auditor Julia Helm, there were 56,268 total ballots cast throughout the County. That number equates to 82.4% voter turnout, which ranks third in the State. Over half of those ballots were mailed in. Helm explains how they were able to get those ballots counted in a timely manner, “We were able to open ballots on the Saturday before the election. We did not separate, we only sliced open (the ballots.) We had 32,000 or some to slice open (Saturday.) We did purchase a machine that slices the envelopes open and we rented a machine, and it still took us over four hours just to slice the envelopes.”

For a comparison Dallas County had a 69.5% voter turnout in 2012 and 77% in 2016. The Dallas County Board of Supervisors canvassed the results during their regular meeting Tuesday.