DENVER — The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office released some early voting returns Monday that show significantly more Republicans voting so far than Democrats.

This is the first election using universal mail in ballots in Colorado.

Registered voters received their ballots in the mail and can either mail them back, drop them off at a ballot box, hand them in or vote in person next Tuesday at a vote site.

According to returns released Monday more than 660,000 of Colorado’s 3 million registered voters have already handed in their ballots.

Of those voters 32 percent are Democrats, 43 percent are Republicans and 24 percent are unaffiliated voters.

Political pundits FOX31 Denver talked to expressed surprise at the size of the Republican advantage so far, but all  sides agree you can’t read much, if anything into the numbers at this point.

They note that this is the first time Colorado has used this ballot system and no one really knows what to expect.  And the final vote count won’t take place until after the polls close at 7 p.m. next Tuesday and a lot of things can change by then.

The next return results will come out Wednesday.

Meanwhile, county clerks note people are running out of time to mail in their ballots.

They must be received by the clerk’s office by 7p.m. next Tuesday. A postmark by 7 p.m. is not good enough.

But voters have the option of dropping off their ballots or voting in person at vote sites.  You can find links to voting resources here.