Editor's note: This story was originally published by Colorado Newsline. Read the original story here.
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Colorado voters by Wednesday had already returned 300,795 ballots in the 2020 general election, Secretary of State Jena Griswold reports. That’s almost 25 times the 12,141 ballots returned by the same time — with 20 days to go — in the 2016 election.
“Colorado is seeing record turnout,” Griswold tweeted on Thursday.
Her office released statistics on the returned ballots that show registered Democrats have returned well more than twice the number of ballots as registered Republicans, and well more than unaffiliated voters. The breakdown was 139,382 mail ballots from Democrats, 100,801 from unaffiliated voters, and 57,779 from Republicans. Among active voters in Colorado, Democrats and Republicans make up slightly less than a third each while 41% are unaffiliated.
In 2016, Democrats had returned 5,638 ballots and Republicans had returned 3,097 ballots by 20 days before the election. Unaffiliated voters had returned 3,206.
Only 275 people had voted in person so far. The rest of voters cast 300,520 mail ballots, which can be returned by post or dropped off at a drop box, election center or drive-up drop-off location.
The deadline to register to receive a ballot in the mail is Oct. 26. Voters may register all the way up through Election Day, Nov. 3.
Election officials may start counting votes 15 days before the election, but no results will be released until after 7 p.m. on Election Day.
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