PORTLAND -- The city has broken its four-year-old record for absentee balloting in an election year.

City Clerk Linda Cohen said as of 9:20 a.m., 10,259 voters had requested absentee ballots. The previous record, set during the 2004 presidential election, stood at 10,003.

A number of elections officials have said they expect to issue far more absentee ballots this year, given hard early-voting pushes by campaigns worried that high turnout on Election Day might turn prospective voters away.

Nearly 164,000 voters statewide requested absentee ballots by this morning, according to the Secretary of State's office.

A total of 166,000 voters cast absentee ballots during the last presidential election.