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Nearly 800,000 Wisconsin voters have already cast early ballots this year, shattering the previous record from the last presidential election.

The increase comes in the wake of a contentious federal court ruling that invalidated restrictions on early voting hours, and as voters decide the most divisive and bitterly fought presidential election in modern American history.

Of the 797,707 early ballots returned so far, 55.8 percent were in counties that President Barack Obama won in 2012. Nearly 651,000 votes were cast in person, at municipal clerks’ offices and other early voting sites.

The total number of early votes cast isn’t final. Voters have until the polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday to get their absentee ballots to their local clerk, so final totals won’t be known until later.

But the number of early votes cast has already surpassed the nearly 665,000 cast in 2012 and little more than 647,000 cast in 2008.

The 2008 total was 21.6 percent of all ballots — a record in percentage terms that will certainly fall after all of Tuesday’s votes are tallied. The early votes already cast this year account for 22.4 percent of all registered voters in the state.