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By 10 a.m. this morning, a quarter of Kern voters had already cast their vote in this year's election.

County election officials say more than 82,000 absentee ballots have been returned so far, accounting for 26 percent of registered voters in Kern. And the number of returned ballots is increasing by about 1,000 each hour.

About 141,000 voters, or half of all registered voters in the county, requested absentee ballots for this election, said Elections Chief Sandy Brockman. That's a 54 percent jump over the last presidential election, when about 92,000 absentee ballots were issued. During the same time, about 16,000 new voters have been added to the rolls.

Check out some of the charts we created to see a breakdown of absentee ballots issued and returned by party. We also show the party makeup of Kern's 311,000 voters.

It's too late to have an absentee ballot mailed to you now but you can still request and complete one in-person at the county elections office through Tuesday. I did the other day and it was breeze. And it will likely save you a long wait at the polls Tuesday. The elections office, located at 1115 Truxtun Ave., is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Monday, and 7 a.m. 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Happy Voting!

-- Stacey Shepard