PROVIDENCE — The tallying of more than 20,000 mail-in ballots yesterday made it official. This election broke the record for the most votes ever cast in Rhode Island.

The state topped its turnout mark on an Election Day that saw the nation’s voters show up in massive numbers.

More than 470,000 Rhode Island voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election, breaking the 1992 record, according to a statement from Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis’ office.

The total so far is 474,802, with provisional ballots yet to be counted. That beats the 453,477 cast in 1992, the year Bill Clinton ran for president — and won — against George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot.

It’s the third election-related record set this year in Rhode Island — the previous marks for voter registrations and primary turnout were also broken.

The turnout record was expected to fall, but it became official after the state Board of Elections finished counting the mail-in ballots yesterday.

Those results have now been added to the tallies on its elections Web site. The numbers reflect the mail-in ballots and those cast at precincts on Tuesday, including approved write-in votes, according to the Robert Kando, executive director of the Elections Board.

“We got the numbers out,” said Kando, whose staff certified mail-ins yesterday after recounting ballots cast in Smithfield and Cranston due to problems at a polling place in each town.

All precincts have reported in, he said.

The only votes still to be counted are those on provisional ballots — ballots, for example, cast by voters at a precinct where their names were not on the voting list.

Those probably won’t be tallied until next week, said Kando, who didn’t know how many there were.

Mail-in counts are critical in close races, where they may determine the winner.