Topeka ? This years’s election in Kansas went smoothly despite record voter registration and turnout, Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh said.

The state’s Board of Canvassers affirmed the results of all 105 counties’ returns Wednesday, officially ending the 2008 campaign.

Thornburgh, chairman of the board, said the election was noteworthy in Kansas because it produced record voter registration, advance voting and turnout. Voter registration was 55,000 above the previous high and there were 21,000 more actual voters, he said.

A record 34 percent used advance voting. In fact, in Johnson and Sedgwick counties, more people voted early than showed up on Nov. 4, he said.

“Election Day went very, very smoothly with very few hiccups,” Thornburgh said.

Thornburgh, Sally Howard and Mary Feighny, representing the governor and attorney general, respectively, fulfilled duties as state canvassers by signing documents Wednesday attesting to the accuracy of the votes.

It was a bit of relief to Sen. Roger Reitz, a Republican from Manhattan, who defeated Democrat Rusty Wilson by 24 votes out of 25,498 cast. Reitz risked defeat in his Senate district by opposing Junction City’s bid for a casino.

“I’m going back,” Reitz said Wednesday. “They’ll have to deal with me.”