(Colorado Newsline) Over 1 million Colorado voters had returned their ballot as of Monday, eight days until Election Day, according to the secretary of state’s office.

That is a bit over 26 percent of active registered voters in the state.

At this time in 2020, which had a large emphasis on returning ballots by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic, turnout was about 47 percent.

Turnout this year is outpacing 2022 midterm numbers, as expected for a presidential election year.

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Democrats have returned about 31 percent of the ballots, Republicans have returned 28 percent and unaffiliated voters have returned about 40 percent. About half of Colorado voters are unaffiliated.

A little over 16,000 votes so far this year were cast in person at one of the state’s polling centers. About 6,700 were from unaffiliated voters, 6,100 from Republicans and 2,800 from Democrats. The two largest demographics of in-person voters are unaffiliated and Republican men, respectively, followed by unaffiliated and Republican women.

Republican politicians, including presidential candidate Donald Trump, have encouraged early in-person voting this year, a big shift in strategy from 2020.

El Paso County has had the most ballots returned so far — both by mail and in person — with about 136,000 total, followed by Jefferson, Arapahoe, Denver and Douglas Counties. El Paso, site of Colorado Springs, is the state’s most populous county.

Voters 55 years and older have cast about 62 percent of the ballots so far. Voters between 18 and 34 years old have returned about 13 percent of the ballots.

Colorado voters have until 7 p.m., Nov. 5, to return their ballot at a drop box or polling center. They can also register and vote in person at a polling center until that time. People who want to return their ballot by mail were advised to send it by the end of Monday to make sure it got to their county clerk in time.

Voters can track their ballot online using BallotTrax.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.