A record-high 166,937 early votes have been cast in Hillsborough County, which breaks the previous General Election record, set in 2008, of 146,558 early votes, according to a news report from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office.

Coupled with the 143,829 votes this year that have been returned via vote-by-mail ballots and Hillsborough County is showing a 41.32 percent voter turnout with just days to go before the 2012 General Election.

"I think we're going to have an excellent turnout this year, we've already had a record number of early and vote-by-mail ballots," said Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Earl Lennard, in a phone interview Nov. 3. "I'm very grateful people are meeting their civic responsibility and taking time to vote."

More than one-third of the early votes cast in the eight days of early voting in Hillsborough County have been cast in the southeastern part of the county, according to figures released from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office.

As of Nov. 3, at 9:45 p.m., 56,887 early votes were cast collectively at the Bloomingdale Regional Library, Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center, SouthShore Library, Riverview Branch Library and Bruton Memorial Library, in Plant City. Those votes accounted for 34.6 percent of the 166,937 early votes cast.

Early voting for the 2012 General Election started Oct. 27 and ended Nov. 3.

Those two sites alone accounted for 15 percent of the early votes cast through Nov. 3 (see chart below).

For more information, call the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office at 813-744-5900. Visit online at VoteHillsborough.org. Email: voter@hcsoe.org.

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2012 General Election Preliminary Early Voting Totals