With the official primary election day a week away, nearly half a million Coloradans have already returned their ballots.

Secretary of State Wayne Williams said Tuesday that 425,377 returned ballots have been recorded statewide.

As of June 1 there were 3,281,294 active registered voters in Colorado, and another 525,357 registered but deemed inactive.

Republicans continue to hold a narrow lead in returned ballots over Democrats, 166,529 to 162,721, according to data released by Williams.

And in the first Colorado primary where unaffiliated voters are allowed to cast ballots without declaring a party allegiance, 96,127 unaffiliateds have voted already.

Unaffiliated voters could either request a particular party’s ballot in advance, or were sent both major parties’ ballots, with the option of returning one or the other (but not both).

So far, in preliminary tallies, unaffiliated voters are returning more Democratic ballots than Republican ones, 35,187 to 23,993, Williams said. Another 36,947 ballots have been received from unaffiliateds but the party has not yet been tabulated.

So far in Denver County, 42,231 ballots have been returned, with Democratic ballots outnumbering Republican ballots by nearly four to one.

In El Paso County, 51,631 ballots have been returned, with Republicans leading by better than two to one.