NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- More than half of the registered voters in Davidson County have already cast their ballots through early voting.

Related: Davidson County Early Voting Schedule, Locations | Video: More Vote Early This Year Than 2004 | Video | Video

Around 185,213 people in Davidson County had voted early as of Thursday afternoon. There are 325,000 active voters in Nashville.

Metro Election Commission spokesman Ray Barrett said he thinks this is going to cut the Tuesday crowds.

"It's really going to help us," said Barrett. "Everybody's voted, so we won't have the turnout, so it will make the lines a lot shorter on Election Day."

Nonetheless, there will be a lot more machines at every precinct next Tuesday and some extras just in case.

"We're holding back quite a few voting machines," said Barrett, "so, let's say we're having lines all day long, we can get out there in less than an hour with the machines and help the lines go quicker."

And with those lines comes the need for poll workers to make sure everything goes smoothly.

"We always have trouble getting enough poll workers," Barrett said, "but this time, (we) have some spares and some we can send to hot spots."

Of the 13 early voting sites in Davidson County, the Hermitage Library has seen the most voters. Nearly 20,000 people voted there as of Wednesday.

Election officials in Rutherford County said 70,000 people will have voted early out of 144,000 registered voters.

Of Sumner County's 88,000 registered voters, 25,000 have voted early.

In Mount Juliet, malfunctioning computers and a power outage pushed the wait to two hours Thursday.

Statewide as of Wednesday, 1.38 million people had voted early, which is a quarter of a million more than the 2004 presidential election.

Early Voting Turnout Sets New Records

Statewide turnout through Wednesday was 1.38 million -- about a quarter-million more voters than the previous early voting record set in the 2004 presidential election.

State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson expects that about 1.5 million people will have cast ballots by the time the early voting period ends Thursday evening. Election Day is Tuesday.

Thompson projects that overall turnout will easily exceed the 2.45 million who voted in 2004. There are nearly 4 million registered voters in Tennessee this year, including more than 360,000 -- or 9 percent -- who have registered for the first time this year.

Nashville real estate agent Randy Smith, 60, said he waited until the last day of early voting because "I'm the world's worst procrastinator."

But Smith, who voted for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said he wanted to avoid what he expects will be a long wait to vote on Election Day.

Timothy Smith, 31, who delivers parts for a Nashville automotive company and voted for Democrat Barack Obama, also cited the prospects of long lines next week.

"I wanted to do it before I have to stand in a line for two to three hours," he said.

About 45 percent of the state's votes were cast early in the last presidential election in 2004, and Thompson said this year's percentage could be higher.

No major problems have been reported so far, Thompson said.

"To have run over 1.2 million people through the system already, it has been remarkably smooth," he said.

Shelby County has seen the highest turnout in the state with nearly 226,951 early voters so far, followed by Davidson County with 172,259 voters.

In Chattanooga, 49-year-old utility employee Eric Koegel, who is attending classes after hours to earn a business degree, said he had tried to vote early Thursday but a long line forced him to leave and return at lunchtime to mark his ballot.

"I wanted to make sure that my vote was counted," said Koegel, who voted for Obama.

Koegel said reducing taxes for middle income Americans is "not a question of redistributing. It's a question of fairness."

Ashley Leitner, a 22-year-old student and member of the College Republican chapter at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said she voted for McCain Thursday. Leitner said she voted early because she was leaving to work through Election Day as a volunteer for the GOP nominee's campaign in Washington, D.C.

Leitner said McCain more than Obama represents "the whole idea of the American dream."

"I just feel safer with John McCain in office," she said.

Thompson said county election officials are prepared for an onslaught of voters on Tuesday.

"Our counties are as ready as they can be," he said. "It's a great thing that we will have already had 1.5 million through the system by Election Day."

Early voting began in Tennessee in 1994.