Mali voter turnout high. Official: I've never seen anything like it

A record number of voters turned in Mali's first presidential election after 18 months of political turmoil, officials said. Some polling offices reported voter turnouts as high as 65 percent, Voice of America reported. There had never been a turnout of more than 40 percent in Mali. Vote-counting was under way and a winner had not been determined. "A lot of people came out. From open to close, people came and just kept coming. I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime," said Youssouf Sangare, who has worked in polling stations for the past five elections. Critics of Sunday's election, in which voters chose from among 27 candidates, said about 350,000 people were denied the ability to vote because the voter registration list was based on the 2009 census. The list excluded thousands of people who have come of voting age since 2009, The New York Times.