photo by: Associated Press

A Kansas advance mail-in ballot is seen Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, in Overland Park, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas voters have cast a record number of advance ballots.

As of Sunday, 770,324 Kansas voters had returned mail-in or advance in-person ballots, according to the Kansas Secretary of State’s office.

“That is the highest number we’ve had prior to Election Day in the history of our state — that is very exciting for us,” said Bryan Caskey, director of elections.

Local election officials mailed out 508,187 ballots and have received 422,104, or about 83%, of them back. That is more than double the number people who voted by mail in the 2016 general election.

Another 348,220 Kansans voted in-person at advance polling sites as of this last weekend.

Democrats cast more mail ballots, while more Republicans voted in person.

As of this weekend Democrats returned 199,747 mail ballots, followed by Republicans with 158,603 and unaffiliated voters 61,924 ballots.

More Republicans showed up to vote at advance polling sites with 196,539 casting their ballots in person, followed by Democrats with 78,216 and unaffiliated voters with 70,235.

The secretary of state’s office said last week it expects 70% of Kansas voters will participate in the election, with about 1.35 million Kansans casting ballots.