COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Unofficial voter turnout of about 70 percent slightly missed predictions despite relentless get-out-the-vote encouragement and record voting lines.

Of a record 8 million registered voters, 5.6 million -- or 69.9 percent -- cast ballots in Tuesday's election, according to unofficial voter counts from the Ohio Secretary of State's Office.

The rate missed the 73 percent turnout rate that Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had predicted but it was higher than the 63.7 percent of Ohioans who voted in the 2000 race between President George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore and the 67.4 percent who voted in President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.

The record turnout in Ohio was the 1992 contest between Clinton, Bush's father and independent millionaire H. Ross Perot, who lured tens of thousand of new voters to the polls.

Before that election, the state's largest turnout was 73.9 percent for former President Ronald Reagan's first campaign of 1980. That was the first presidential election year the state required voters to register, making turnout figures possible.

This year's lower-than-expected turnout rate baffled Ohioans who waited in some areas for as long as 10 hours to cast a ballot and was a surprise to others, considering get-out-the-vote efforts by both parties.

Some Knox County residents were in the national spotlight for how long it took them to vote.

Kenyon College student Maggie Hill appeared on the "Today Show" Wednesday morning. She was one of hundreds of students and other Gambier residents who waited for up to 10 hours to cast their votes.

While Hill said she was disappointed with the outcome of the presidential race, she said she'd do it all again.

"I don't regret it at all," Hill said. "I'm glad I voted. I'm disappointed, but I did what I could. ... Just given the two very tight races in the past two elections, I think that it's really apparent that everyone's vote really counts in these elections. And I think, despite where I am in terms of what state I'm in, I'm going to vote no matter what."

Observers in the Gambier precinct said there were only two voting machines for 1,300 voters. Each machine, they said, is designed to handle 20 voters per hour.