Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez reports that ballots in the special election between Republican Jesse Kelly and Democrat Ron Barber are returning at a record pace.

Rodriguez says that her office mailed out 185,000 early ballots in the race beginning on Thursday, May 17. By today, more than 48,782 ballots had come back in.

That amounts to more than 26 percent, or one in four early voters in Pima County, having cast their vote in the race already. Typically, 10 to 15 percent of voters send in ballots within the first week, according to Rodriguez.

Not too many of the ballots have been sorted by political party, but we'll bring you numbers as they become available.

Pima County is one of four counties inside of Congressional District 8. About 23,660 ballots were requested in Cochise County and about 5,000 ballots were requested in Pinal County, according to a breakdown that was passed along to us.