Vice President Joe Biden on Friday told Obama campaign volunteers they had the best ground game operation in the history of presidential politics, even though Democrats are trailing Republicans by 2.6 points in early voting, which is nearly a five-point swing in the GOP's favor from 2008.

“The ground operation which you guys represent is the best, in my view, the best in the history of presidential politics," Biden said. 

But early vote totals released by the Colorado Secretary of State's office on Friday showed 547,150 early votes cast by Republicans, 509,091 by Democrats and 390,875 by "unaffiliated" voters. A total of 1,464, 163 ballots have been cast so far. 

This means, so far, the partisan breakdown of Colorado's early vote (absentee and in-person) is: 

37.4%  Republican

34.8%  Democrat

26.7%  Unaffiliated 

In 2008, Democrats had a two-point lead in early voting in Colorado, and Obama won the state by nearly 10 points by winning the state's independents in Denver's suburbs. In 2012, Obama is underperforming, with polls showing Obama tied with Romney in the state with momentum on Romney's side.