Like most folks, I was exhausted by the non-stop assault of political ads in the weeks leading up to recent elections. But even I didn't think it was this bad.

A new study out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison says local newscasts in seven Midwest markets aired 4 minutes, 24 seconds of paid political ads during the typical 30-minute broadcast while dedicating an average of 1 minute, 43 seconds to election news coverage.

The analysis also shows that most of the news coverage of elections on early and late-evening broadcasts was devoted to campaign strategy and polling, which outpaced reporting on policy issues by a margin of more than three to one (65 percent to 17 percent). Those findings come amid studies consistently showing that voters look to local television newscasts as their primary source of information about elections.

The analysis was done by the Midwest News Index (MNI), a project of UW-Madison's NewsLab. The findings are part of an ongoing study examining the content and effect of local television news in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The study found that 2,392 election stories aired in captured broadcasts on the stations in the seven markets while 8,995 political ads aired during the same period.

From Oct. 7 to Nov. 6, NewsLab captured and coded the content of early- and late-evening newscasts on 28 ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliates in seven markets in the five-state region. They included: Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Cleveland, Columbus, Madison, and Milwaukee.

The UW NewsLab also obtained and analyzed corresponding advertising data from TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG during this timeframe for the affiliates included in these markets.

The study also found:

* The average length of a single story devoted primarily to elections was roughly 76 seconds. By contrast, a similar national study conducted by NewsLab during the 2002 mid-term election found the average story ran 89 seconds.

* 41 percent of the election stories were aired in the final week before Election Day.

* There was a political ad "echo effect:" More than one in 10 election stories mentioned, pictured, or focused on a specific campaign ad.