Turnout in Tuesday’s county and city elections was relatively good for an off-election year, said Coles County Clerk Betty Coffrin.

Countywide, 10,599 of the 30,943 registered voters cast ballots, a 34 percent turnout.

Another 37 ballots were left blank and had to be discarded.

Coffrin said the relatively high turnout was because of interest in some close local races.

“There were 150 candidates countywide and some hotly contested races in some cities and townships,” Coffrin said.

Close races tend to bring people out to the polls, she said.

Just under 4,000 Charleston residents cast ballots in the city’s mayoral election.

The turnout was slightly better than the last mayoral election in 1997 when 3,646 residents voted.

Despite the improvement, Coffrin said she still would have liked to have seen a higher turnout.

“I was prepared for a 100 percent turnout,” she said, noting that the county printed ballots for every registered voter.

“(If people didn’t vote), it wasn’t because their ballots weren’t printed and waiting for them at the voting place,” she said.