Seth Jack­son served his coun­try for six years in the U.S. Army Nation­al Guard, but this year is the first time the 27-year-old felt a dri­ve to take part in decid­ing who should lead the Unit­ed States.

“I guess in my ear­ly years, I didn’t real­ly under­stand (its impor­tance),” the Lake­wood res­i­dent said after he vot­ed in per­son Thurs­day at the Bel­mar Library. “I was kind of obliv­i­ous to many things.”

Like Jack­son, unaf­fil­i­at­ed vot­er Tabor Ben­ton, 24, turned in his bal­lot for the first time Thursday.

“I thought I need­ed to do it in this polit­i­cal cli­mate,” he said at the drop box at Mis­sion Viejo Library in Auro­ra, adding, “I think it’s just real­ly how the coro­n­avirus has been handled.”

Jack­son and Ben­ton are among 2,524,240 Col­oradans who cast their bal­lots as of Sun­day morn­ing — and also among the near­ly 37% who are unaf­fil­i­at­ed. More than 67% of Colorado’s active vot­ers and 59% of eli­gi­ble vot­ers have cast their bal­lots, accord­ing to Judd Choate, the state’s elec­tion director.

“At this pace Col­orado could be the first U.S. state (ever) to reach 80% turnout among eli­gi­ble vot­ers,” Choate wrote on Twit­ter.

The num­bers have already turnout set records for two days before the elec­tion, not­ed Repub­li­can poll­ster David Fla­her­ty of Mag­el­lan Strategies.

“What’s dri­ving is what drove it in 2018,” he said. “We had such a his­toric elec­tion then where unaf­fil­i­at­ed vot­ers par­tic­i­pat­ed in an elec­tion at a lev­el that we’ve nev­er seen before.”

In an extra­or­di­nary pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year com­pli­cat­ed by a pan­dem­ic and protests for racial jus­tice, Col­orado vot­ers say nation­al issues are dri­ving them to the polls, or the bal­lot box. Sev­er­al statewide issues and races have nation­al impli­ca­tions, too, such as pro­posed abor­tion restric­tions and the nation­al pop­u­lar vote.

Democ­rats are lead­ing the way in per­cent­age of active reg­is­tered Demo­c­ra­t­ic vot­ers who have turned in their bal­lots at 77.3%, fol­lowed by Repub­li­cans’ 71.5% and unaffiliated’s 62.1%, accord­ing to data com­piled by Mag­el­lan.

Although nei­ther Jack­son nor Ben­ton are affil­i­at­ed with a polit­i­cal par­ty, their lean­ings dif­fer — Jack­son sup­ports the reelec­tion of Trump while Ben­ton vot­ed for Joe Biden. Col­orado is expect­ed to vote for Biden, but both par­ties are depend­ing on unaf­fil­i­at­ed vot­ers to help their causes.

For Jack­son, his bal­lot this year was about tak­ing a stand for pro­tect­ing the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion and bib­li­cal prin­ci­ples, and a new­found con­vic­tion that every vote mat­ters. Although he denounced what he called “blovi­a­tion” from both par­ties, he said the Repub­li­can Party’s plat­form most aligns with his ideals, includ­ing on abor­tion. But Jack­son also want­ed to make sure to cast a vote against Colorado’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Nation­al Pop­u­lar Vote Com­pact, cit­ing once again the ideals of the Constitution.

Ben­ton said he chose the can­di­date and not the par­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly based on Biden’s plans for health care and renew­able energy.

The increased polar­iza­tion around Trump and the country’s polit­i­cal par­ties has also added a sense of urgency for long­time voters.

Auro­ra res­i­dent Tse­haye Tige views elec­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly this year’s, through the lens of equal­i­ty and human rights. She wor­ries about anoth­er four years of a Trump pres­i­den­cy and the effects it could have on social justice.

“America’s come a long way,” Tige said. “I hope we’re going to succeed.”

Eric Red­land, a reg­is­tered Repub­li­can, brought his 89-year-old moth­er with him Thurs­day as he cast his vote in Lake­wood. He said he’s tired of the lib­er­al push behind var­i­ous move­ments, which seem to be at “such a fever pitch.”

“Things aren’t as bad as they seem,” Red­land said.

Demo­c­rat Bertha Adam­son, how­ev­er, wor­ries not only about Trump but the groups that have been ener­gized by his pres­i­den­cy, includ­ing those espous­ing big­ot­ed ideals.

“There are a lot of things that are bro­ken, and I’m real­ly wor­ried about the future of this democ­ra­cy,” Adam­son said, not­ing issues of vot­er sup­pres­sion and racial justice.

In addi­tion to fed­er­al-lev­el pol­i­tics, she also point­ed to the impor­tance of statewide bal­lot issues and down-tick­et races. She said she’s been frus­trat­ed with groups try­ing to get their own pri­or­i­ties on the bal­lot, doing an end-run around those whom Col­oradans have vot­ed to lead them, whether it’s the anti-abor­tion mea­sure, the mea­sure that would force votes on fees or the pro­posed income tax cut.

Propo­si­tion 115, the 22-week abor­tion ban, is one of the statewide issues that has received the most atten­tion and mon­ey in Colorado’s elec­tion this year, and it’s expect­ed to be a close race. With the con­fir­ma­tion of Amy Coney Bar­rett to the U.S. Supreme Court, Colorado’s statewide issue has become a focus on a nation­al lev­el.

The mea­sure was so con­fus­ing to Lake­wood vot­er Clin­ton Day, he said he had to read it mul­ti­ple times. But to him, penal­iz­ing doc­tors for per­form­ing abor­tions is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and “heinous.”

In addi­tion to “get­ting the Repub­li­can Par­ty out,” Jamie Cov­el­li — a reg­is­tered Demo­c­rat who doesn’t like the country’s two-par­ty polit­i­cal sys­tem — said the abor­tion issue is among the top statewide issues to defeat.

“A woman should def­i­nite­ly have a choice over their own body,” Cov­el­li said.

Chris­tine Smidt, a reg­is­tered Repub­li­can, felt more strong­ly about vot­ing this year than she did four years ago. Although she said she under­stands a woman’s deci­sion to have an abor­tion is very dif­fi­cult, she ulti­mate­ly vot­ed in favor of the 22-week ban.

At a time when the coun­try is so divid­ed, fill­ing out a bal­lot has tak­en on spe­cial impor­tance and mean­ing for Smidt. Peo­ple should use their right to vote as a way to have their voic­es heard, she said. But she also noticed anoth­er dif­fer­ence this year.

“I feel a lot more edu­cat­ed,” Smidt said. “I feel a lot more empowered.”