More Republicans than Democrats turned in ballots during the first week of primary voting.

That includes the ballots returned from independents, who appear to be more interested in determining who the Democratic nominee will be in state races this year.

Of those returns, 5,328 came from independents voting Democrat, while 3,493 came from the unaffiliated voters participating in the GOP race.

This week’s totals are 97,506 voting Republican and 95,719 voting Democrat.

Even before the independents were added into the mix, Republicans still had a bigger turnout than Democrats, which shows they are more excited and clearly motivated to vote early in this year’s election.

We can only hope this trend continues.