More than 19,300 people who live in the 21st Congressional District have already cast their ballots for election day, and as many as 24,199 could eventually be returned, representing 6 percent of all active voters, according to my count.

The 19,300 number is very preliminary. Expect it to rise as county Boards of Elections start filing their absentees. There's a chance that it will be awhile before we know who won the 21st Congressional District race. The race was only 2,000 votes apart last time around. If it's that close on election night and there are more than 20,000 absentees left to be counted, we'll have to make a game-time decision on making a call in the Bill Owens-Matt Doheny race.

I was the 132nd voter in my precinct today (I voted in the presidential election, which I did not cover, but not any of the local elections, which I have). I was the 218th person to put a ballot in the machine. I voted at the First Nazarene Church on Thompson Boulevard, where I play rec league basketball every Wednesday.

We might have to move some furniture around for our game tomorrow night.

Election officials have told me that there's a steady stream of voters today, and turnout might be up over 2008, but it's too early to tell. It's certainly going to eclipse the number of people who voted in 2009 and 2010.

Keep in mind that with only a few more waves of envelopes arriving, the absentee total will be roughly equal to the total turnout for any of the three primaries that New York held this year.

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