Edward McKinley is reporting for the Times Union Schenectady and Albany counties were among the top four turnout counties statewide as early voting drew to a close November 1. More than one-in-five voters in each of the two counties voted across eight days of early voting. In Schenectady County, 23.55 percent of those registered voted; in Albany County, 21.4 percent voted, according to statistics released by the state Board of Elections. The state average was 17.33 percent. Richmond (Staten Island) and Erie were the only other counties with higher turnout. With less than 24 hours before the polls open on election day, more than 90 million Americans have already voted, about two-thirds of the number that voted in 2016. In New York, there were just over 2.3 million early votes cast before Nov. 1. For mail-in ballots, 2.5 million were requested and nearly 1.1 million were returned by the evening of November 1, a Board of Elections spokeswoman wrote in an email. That puts the total number of votes cast statewide as of November 1 at 3.3 million — less than half of the 2016 total, which was just over 7.5 million. By comparison, Texas, another large, low-turnout state, has already exceeded its 2016 totals during the early voting period. This suggests that either final turnout in New York will be much lower than expected, or that millions are planning to turn out to vote on Election Day. Read the full story in the Times Union.