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County-by-county early voting numbers in Colorado

On the day before Election Day, more than 2 million ballots have been returned in Colorado, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

Credit: AP

Signs direct voters to a ballot drop-off location Oct. 25, 2024, in Washington Park in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER — On the day before Election Day 2024, more than 2 million ballots have been returned in Colorado, with unaffiliated voters leading the way.

The early voting numbers are lagging behind where they were at this point in the 2020 election, which was the last time a presidential race was on the ballot. That's true for Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters, according to data released Monday by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

At the same point for the 2020 election, 2,539,690 ballots had been returned.

Dr. Robert Preuhs, chair of Political Science at Metro State University in Denver, told 9NEWS the lag could be in part due to Colorado's status as a blue state.

“Going back to 2008, 2012, and even 2016 we were one of those swing states, and so there was lots of information, lots of ads. More than what we see now, and those kinds of things spark voters' interest," Preuhs said.

On Monday, Preuhs said without Colorado being considered a swing state, some people may look at this year's election differently.

"If you are not getting a sense that your vote is going to matter, or you feel that the direction is exactly where it's going to go already, maybe you kind of turn off a little bit and tune out," Preuhs said.

RELATED: Who's on the ballot in Colorado's 2024 election?

As of 11:59 p.m. Sunday, 2,092,035 ballots had been returned in Colorado. The number of ballots returned by party are:

Democrat: 609,364 (29.13% of the total)
Republican: 570,109 (27.25%)
Unaffiliated: 881,010 (42.11%)
Other: 3,607 (0.17%)

The counties with the most returns so far are El Paso and Jefferson, both with more than 250,000 ballots returned. Those two counties account for about a quarter of all ballots returned so far in Colorado.

Preuhs said another reason the state could be lagging behind 2020, is because of this year's lengthy ballot.

"On one [hand], it feeds this fatigue, to have to spend some more time figuring out what you are going to vote for. On the other hand, having a number of issues on a ballot can draw a lot of different groups to the ballot and to the polls," he said.

RELATED: Here are the initiatives that are on the 2024 Colorado ballot

Preuhs said this could be impacting voters in Colorado more than the state's past voting reputation.

"We weren't a swing state really in 2020, and so it might just be political fatigue, a little bit," Preuhs said.

Regardless, Preuhs said Colorado should expect to see voting numbers go way up on Election Day.

"There is still a substantial portion that like to vote in-person and there still is a substantial portion that kind of wait until last minute for whatever reasons -- they can't make up their mind or they just like the tradition of voting on Election Day," he said.

Here's the county-by-county breakdown of the number of ballots returned: