(Update: Added videos, comments from county officials and local parties)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Election Day is just around the corner and Central Oregon County election officials are already preparing for the big night.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, nearly 57% of all general election ballots in Deschutes County were returned as of Monday, or about 90,000.

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

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

“It appears to be one of the highest voter turnout days we’ve seen so far this election cycle,” said Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison.

But overall, he said, “Things kind of worked out. The ballots have been coming in – you know, at a steady pace, but not really – up to this point turnout hasn't been very high.”

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

“Traditionally, more ballots are cast through mailboxes than through the mail anyway,” says Dennison sadly. “But here too, all ballots that we receive in the mail that have a valid ballot stamp that is valid on or before election day are valid.”

As the county prepares for what is expected to be a long election night, both the local Democratic and Republican parties continue to work to return any last-minute votes

Connie Whelchel, vice president of the Deschutes County Republican Party, said, “We have done and continue to do everything we can for this important election: from phone calls, text messages, door knocking, letter-writing campaigns, postcard campaigns and social media campaigns.”

Democratic Party Vice President Eileen Kiely said there will be a lot of work to do on Monday and Tuesday: “We're mostly busy canvassing just to make sure people have returned their ballots. So far the numbers look really good. So we just have to make sure we get all voters to vote.

And with so many contested races, particularly for president, both parties saw record-breaking popular turnout.

Kiely said: “Within the first 24 hours of Kamala Harris announcing her candidacy, we had 33 new volunteers that I had never seen before. And it just kept going. And that was different.”

The Republican Party also saw a record number of volunteers. Whelchel said: “In our election campaigns we had a lot of volunteers, PCP or people from the county committee supporting us. We couldn't do this without them. We worked very hard!” We are tired but hopeful.

In Central Oregon, polls close at 8 p.m. and mailed ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday. However, ballot boxes that arrive up to a week later will be received and counted by the offices in a timely manner with the postmark.