Start - says Jane Platten of the Board of Elections - with the fact that it's' an odd time for an election.
JANE PLATTEN: "September elections are not something folks are used to - especially county wide - and it's the day after Labor Day, so even with all we have going on in Cuyahoga County, our expectations are a low voter turnout, and that's unfortunate."
Tuesday's election will be an historic first, as voters decide who will face off for the new County Executive seat, and the 11 new council seats.
The primary 'has' garnered more than 156 thousand mail-in, or 'absentee' ballot requests, but the return rate has been less than Platten anticipated.
PLATTEN: "We have just under 100,000 ballots returned as of today, which is about a 63% return rate. Usually we're a little above that by now."
And there's just one more day to mail in those vote-by mail ballots, since the Post Office does not process new mail on Sunday or Labor Day, and anything postmarked Tuesday - is too late.
Platten admits surprise at the low return of mail in ballots, considering May of this year posted a new record for the percentage of votes by mail - 61% of all votes cast.
Platten predicts only 17-19% of Cuyahoga County's more than 976,000 registered voters will participate. Primary elections in September of 2009 drew only a 12 percent turnout.
