NEW YORK, NY November 06, 2008 —Despite the dancing in the streets and the long lines at the polls, New York City's turnout rate was somewhat underwhelming. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

REPORTER: The city's board of elections hasn't given out final numbers. But it is reporting that 2.34 million New Yorkers pulled a lever or filled in an emergency ballot Tuesday. That's 40,000 more than in the last presidential contest. But the turnout rate clocks in shy of 51 percent of registered voters, while experts are estimating the national turnout between 58 and a record-breaking 64 percent.

Local watchdogs suspect a more than usual number of people were forced to cast affidavit ballots because their registration could not be verified. Curtis Gans, an election expert at American University, has another theory: Republicans, and even some Democrats, stayed home; They knew who was going to win New York. For WNYC, I'm Matthew Schuerman.

HOST: The state Board of Elections reports some 7 million voters turned out across New York on Tuesday, and once all ballots are collected, could break the record set four years ago. A Board spokesman says the numbers are on track to be very close to, or surpass, the 2004 record of 7,448,266 voters.