Almost 150,000 fewer people voted in this year's presidential election in Massachusetts compared to 2020's race.

Secretary of State William Galvin's office said Monday the official turnout for the election was 3,512,866 voters.

This is the second highest count of ballots ever cast in the state's history. In 2020, almost 3.7 million voters cast a ballot in the height of the pandemic, when mail-in voting became available to all of the state's citizens.

“The turnout in Massachusetts appears to reflect a national trend, with a significant drop in participation in several of our cities, especially those with larger minority populations, and a slightly smaller rise in turnout in the more rural and suburban areas of the state,” Galvin said in a statement on Monday.

Chelsea, Everett, Randolph, Revere, Malden, Lynn and Boston all saw more than a 10% decrease in the number of ballots cast compared to 2020, Galvin's office said.

And in a number of cities, the downward trend started before that. Lawrence, Holyoke, Chelsea and Everett saw more than a 10% decrease in votes cast since 2016 despite gaining population.

The number of voters registered to vote in the state reached an all time high at 5.1 million, which means turnout for 2024 election is about 68% of the electorate. But Galvin cautioned against drawing conclusions from that number since the state adopted automatic voter registration four years ago, through the RMV and Health Connector, which contributed to increasing voter rolls.

Since 2020, the number of registered voters increased by about 242,000.

In 2020, there were about 4.8 million registered voters (with 76% casting a ballot), and in 2016 there were 4.5 million registered voters (with about 74% voting), according to state data.