BATON ROUGE, La. -- Nine percent of Louisiana's voters cast ballots early for next week's election, setting a new record for early voting in the state.

WWL-TV

The Secretary of State's Office says more than 266,000 people voted early. East Baton Rouge Parish led the way with more than 32,000 ballots cast during the early voting period, from Oct. 20 through Tuesday. That's nearly 12 percent of the parish's registered voters.

Voters faced waits of up to several hours day after day at parish registrar of voters offices and a handful of satellite

sites.

By comparison, 128,000 people early voted in the 2004 presidential race, and just under 141,000 showed up in advance of last year's statewide contests, which included the governor's race.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)