Decision 2024: Despite voter turnout being down by 20%, Deschutes County clerk sees an increase in late voting

(Update: Adding video, comments from county clerk and local parties)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Election Day is at hand, and Central Oregon county election officials are among those preparing for the big night.

According to the Secretary of State's office, as of Monday, nearly 57% of all General Election ballots have been returned in Deschutes County, which is around 90,000.

Jefferson County as of Monday had nearly 47% of its ballots back, or 8,212 in total, while Crook County reported nearly 12,000 ballots returned, or 54%. Statewide, more than 1.43 million ballots had been returned, or 46.6% of Oregon's just over 3 million registered voters.

The Deschutes County Clerk's Office was full of voters a day before the election, busy submitting and filling out their ballots, but that doesn't represent what voter turnout looks like this election.

"It seems to be one of the higher turnout days that we've seen so far during this election cycle," Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison said.

But overall, he said, "Things have been kind of trickling in. Ballots have been trickling in - you know, at a consistent pace, but not really - not a very high turnout to this point."

Despite the relatively low turnout, Dennison says this year, more voters are choosing to return their ballots in person.

"We do traditionally see more ballots cast through drop boxes than through the mail anyway," Dennison sad. "But again, any ballots that we receive in the mail that have that valid ballot postmark are going to count, that valid postmark on or before Election Day. "

As the county office prepares for what they're expecting to be a long election night, both the local Democratic and Republican parties are continuing the push to get any last-minute votes returned

Deschutes County Republican Party Vice President Connie Whelchel said, "For this important election, we have done and are doing everything from phone calling, texting, door-knocking, letter campaigns, postcard campaigns, social media campaigns."

Democratic Party Vice President Eileen Kiely said Monday and Tuesday will be busy: "We are mostly getting canvasing, just making sure that people have returned their ballots. So far, you know, the numbers look really good. So we just have to make sure we get all voters out to vote. "

And with so many contentious races, especially for president, both parties have seen record amounts of community participation.

Kiely said, "Within the first 24 hours after Kamala Harris announced that she was running, we had 33 new volunteers that I'd never seen before. And it just continued. And that has been different."

The Republican Party has also seen a record number of volunteers. Whelchel said, "With our get-out-the-vote operations, we've had a ton of volunteers, PCP, or precinct committee people helping us. We couldn't do this without them. We've been working very hard! We're tired but hopeful. "

In Central Oregon, the ballot boxes close at 8 p.m., and mailed ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday, though clerks' offices will receive and count the ballots postmarked in time that arrive up to a week later.