The Kansas secretary of state’s office says

turnout in this week’s election was 48.4 percent.

That’s a little better than the 47.5 percent Secretary of State

Chris Biggs had predicted.

About 834,000 of the state’s 1.7 million registered voters cast

ballots. Biggs had predicted about 820,000 would do so.

Turnout was lower than in each of the past four so-called

midterm elections, when Kansans choose a governor and other

statewide officials.

In 2006, a good year for Democrats nationally, turnout was 52

percent in Kansas. And in 1994, when Republicans claimed majorities

both houses of Congress, it was 64 percent in the Sunflower State.