COEUR d'ALENE — Polls for today's city council and fire district elections are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Kootenai County officials said they expect absentee results to be posted at http://www.kcgov.us/elections/ starting around 8:20 p.m. Results will be updated about every hour with the final results expected around 11 p.m., pending any election-night hiccups.

If early and mail-in voting is any indication, voter turnout could be dismal and resemble low numbers from recent elections.

As of Friday, about 1,300 early ballots had been cast.

"That's not that many at all," said Carrie Phillips, Kootenai County's elections manager.

In the last city-fire election, November 2015, 9,296 votes were cast (18.6 percent) out of 50,020 registered voters.

One reason for the early low voter turnout in this election is likely that in the county's three largest cities — Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Hayden — just one of the nine city races is contested.

However, the one race that is contested, for Post Falls City Council Seat 4 currently held by Betty Ann Henderson, could be in for a fantastic finish with six candidates.

Bob Flowers, Richard Whitehead, Bobby Wilhelm, Steve Anthony, James Steffensen and Joe Bodman are seeking the seat. Henderson is not running for re-election.

The popular seat could bring out more Post Falls voters than during the 2015 election when 1,265 votes were cast, an 11 percent turnout.

The northern part of the county should have some hotly contested races tonight.

There will be two races for Rathdrum City Council. Darrell Rickard is being challenged by Kandi Johnson and Penelope Weitz for Seat 1, while Paula Laws is being challenged by Mike Hill for Seat 3.

Spirit Lake Mayor Todd Clary is being challenged by Renee Eastman, while council member Joy Porter is being challenged by William Millsaps and Kim Trask.

In the Timberlake Fire Protection District, Sherry Graaskamp is challenging David "Rudy" Rudebaugh for the Sub-District 4 seat, and Deborah Rose is challenging Sam Conner for Sub-District 5.

In the Spirit Lake Fire District, Jonathan Hall is challenging Mark Miller for Sub-District 2.

Another race in the northern section of the county includes Mary Zichko and Andrew Bruse seeking Athol City Council Seat 3.

Farther south, with Kootenai County Fire and Rescue's Sub-District 3 seat, Jeff Populus and Andrew Boyle are hoping to unseat Richard Nordstrom. KCFR covers Post Falls, Dalton Gardens, State Line, Wolf Lodge and Huetter.

Raymond Watkins and Eugene Marano are seeking Seat 1 of the Fernan Lake Village City Council.

The city of Harrison has two races as Kayleen Walker is challenging Mayor Wanda Irish while Debbie Lockhart, Jessica Hutson and write-in candidates Russell Riberich and Brad Hruza are seeking three seats on the council.

EQUIPMENT A-OK

The county on Monday performed its accuracy test of its two ballot tabulators at the Elections Office on Third Street.

The test, which was open to the public to observe, was a verification of the equipment and programming before the county begins actual ballot counting tonight.

Test ballots will be run through the tabulators again tonight both before and after the actual counting to ensure accuracy.

The tabulators can count up to 300 ballots per minute, but county staff send through about 150 at a time to avoid possible ballot jams and other issues.

The digital tabulators are not connected to the internet during the counting process.

County Treasurer Steve Matheson served as the verifier after the ballots were counted.

"Any time there's an independent validation of the process, that should provide comfort to those who cast votes," Matheson said.

Flowers and Rathdrum City Clerk Sherri Halligan also observed the process.

Kootenai County has been using the ballot scanners and tabulators since 2013 and was the first county in the state to use the machines, which reduce handling time by election workers.

There are a few polling place changes for some voters this election. Precinct 13 (Hayden Meadows School) and Precinct 66 (Mica Flats Grange) are closed due to no election in those areas. Also, the polling place for Precincts 12 and 10 have been consolidated at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Rathdrum.

Voters must live within the taxing district boundary for at least 30 days prior to today to be eligible to vote.

Voters must show a photo identification at the polls. If voters can't show an ID, they will be given the option to sign a personal identity affidavit.

CALL FOR INFO

If you don't know where your polling place is or if you have other questions, call Kootenai County Elections at 208-446-1030 or email kcelections@kcov.us.

Voters who would like to see a sample ballot for which they are eligible can use the polling place look-up tool at http://www.kcgov.us/elections/search.