Although municipal elections historically draw little turnout and few people have cast a ballot as part of early voting over the past weeks, Carroll County election officials say today’s election may draw a bigger crowd than expected because of the competitive nature of many of the races.

Carroll County Elections Supervisor Patti Brown-Traylor said that while she doesn’t really anticipate a large crowd voting in today’s municipal elections, she could be surprised. She said usually municipal races are largely uncontested, generating little excitement among the electorate, though this year’s races are quite the exception.

Altogether, there are 19 seats up for grabs today for the Carrollton, Bowdon, Mt. Zion, Temple, Villa Rica and Whitesburg city councils, as well as the Carrollton City Board of Education. Of these, 14 races are contested, making the number of candidates who recently qualified to run for municipal offices in the upcoming election the highest seen in years, said Brown-Traylor.

“We had a lot more people qualify this time than we had in previous municipal years. In the past, in some places only the incumbents qualify, but that didn’t happen this time except for Bowdon and Whitesburg,” Brown-Traylor said previously. “Some of the people who qualified said they thought that the people should have a choice.”

Because of the number of contested races, Brown-Traylor said the turnout for today’s election could exceed expectations.

“Most of the time it’s just the incumbent running unopposed. This time there is competition, and I could be fooled,” she said. “There could be more people come out than we’ve had in years past.”

If early voting is any indicator, though, turnout will be as paltry as its been for the last two municipal elections. Only 463 people cast ballots during the early voting period, representing less than 3 percent of all those registered. This doesn’t include the 83 ballots issued via mail. Of those, 49 have already been returned to the Board of Elections. The others must be received by the board before the polls close today.

Before anyone can cast a ballot today, they’ll need to remember to bring a photo ID to their respective polling place. Polling locations are listed on a resident’s voter registration card. Precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and anyone in line when the precincts close will have the opportunity to cast a ballot. It’s against the law to bring campaign materials into an individual precinct, and those wearing campaign shirts or buttons will be asked to remove them. Voters who are not registered to vote within a specific municipality will not be allowed to cast a ballot as today’s election is limited to municipal races only.