Maryland’s first couple took part Monday in early voting for the first time at their new Annapolis address.

Early voting started Thursday in Maryland on remains open through 8 p.m. this Thursday.

Gov. Wes Moore and first lady Dawn Moore took advantage of Maryland’s early, in-person voting period, casting his own ballot Monday morning at the Pip Moyer Recreation Center in Annapolis.

“We’re honored that the people of this state gave us the honor of now having an Annapolis address, which means a new polling place, but also, just a new chance to be able to, you know, make sure that democracy is really protected and heard,” Gov. Wes Moore said. “(We’re) just so thankful for all the poll workers and everybody who’s out here doing this work today.”

According to the Maryland State Board of Elections, 53,931 votes have been cast early statewide by the end of the fourth day of early voting on Sunday, representing 1.47% of eligible Maryland voters.

When 11 News asked why he chose to cast a ballot during early voting, the governor said: “The thing I love about the way Maryland works is, you have multiple options, right? You can do mail-in, you can do early vote, you can vote day-of. We just thought it was most convenient for us to be able to vote early.”

Turnout numbers so far are down compared to past election cycles. The drop in foot traffic during early voting comes amid an increase in Marylanders voting by mail, and in spite of hotly contested Democratic contests for Baltimore mayor and U.S. Senate .

“I think a lot of people are availing themselves of the newer methods, mail-in being the primary choice, so far,” said Jared DeMarinis, the state administrator of elections. “We have a robust mail-in ballot program here. We’ve had over 620,000 individuals request mail-in ballots. We have mailed out over 585,000 ballots, so far, and we have received close to 225,000 ballots, so far.”

Even with the rise in popularity of mail-in voting, state elections officials expect roughly half of all primary ballots to be cast on Election Day itself, May 14.