Though voter turnout throughout Dane County was unusually high Tuesday, Election Day was not without problems as the busy Madison East High School polling station closed briefly because of a bomb threat.

Madison School District spokesperson Joe Quick said the bomb threat at the high school — located at 2222 E. Washington Ave. — happened around 9 a.m. and added everybody in the school was evacuated by 11:40 a.m., including voters and poll workers.

The Madison Police Department's Public Information Officer Carlos Valentin said police followed routine procedures to thoroughly search the building, but after investigation they found no evidence of dangerous materials inside.

The polling station closed for approximately 90 minutes, Valentin added, but also stayed open an hour later — remaining open until 9 p.m. — to allow everyone to cast a vote.

George Twigg, spokesperson for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said city attorney Michael May sought to keep the polls open at Madison East High School an extra hour because only a court can extend voting hours. The Dane County Circuit Court and Judge Daniel Moeser heard the petition to extend the hours late Tuesday afternoon.

"It's hard to know for sure how many people couldn't vote during that time, but we wanted to err on the side that everyone who wanted to vote could, even though that polling place was closed," Twigg added.

Police still do not know where the threat came from, according to Valentin. But Quick said the school district is confident the threat had nothing to do with the election, and students returned to classes at 2:45 p.m.

"It was a standard bomb threat at a high school, and police found nothing," Quick added. "There were no indications it had to do with the elections or with voting."

But besides the incident at Madison East High School, Twigg said the elections ran smoothly throughout the city.

The only other incident, which Twigg said could hardly be considered a problem, was a shortage of voter registration forms. According to Twigg, the number of new voters was so high throughout the day — much higher than in previous years — that several polling places ran out of paperwork.

"We had a very high number for voter registration, and we needed new forms — but that's certainly a good thing," he added. "Things [went] pretty smoothly everywhere else."

Kyle Richmond, public information officer for the State Elections Board, said it is not just the numbers for voter registration that were high. SEB predicted a 50 percent voter turnout throughout the state overall, Richmond added, but by 10 a.m. Tuesday turnout was already more than 20 percent.

"Voter numbers in Dane County are usually high," he said. "But we've been hearing [turnout] is higher than we predicted for statewide, too."