Colorado surpasses 2016 voter turnout by 10 a.m. on Election Day

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- With nearly 3 million votes cast before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Colorado has officially surpassed the voter turnout seen in the 2016 presidential election.

That's according to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who reported Tuesday morning that 2,893,395 people had successfully voted as of 10 a.m. In 2016, a total of 2,855,257 ballots had been returned, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

By noon, that number rose above 3 million.

As of noon today, 3,003,907 ballots have been returned, for a turnout rate of 79.5% among active registered voters! Let’s keep it up Colorado & make sure our state has the highest turnout rate in the nation! You can register & vote until 7 pm tonight. https://t.co/T1hpRP1lhp

— Colorado Sec. of State (@COSecofState) November 3, 2020

There are still tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of votes still expected by county clerks across Colorado on Tuesday.

Griswold shared numbers on Sunday showing that unaffiliated voters were the largest demographic of returned ballots so far, followed by Democratic voters. Registered Republican voters lagged behind Democrats by about 100,000 votes, according to Tuesday morning's numbers from the Secretary of State's Office.

Stay with KRDO.com throughout the evening for updating elections results and our live stream presentation starting at 7 p.m.