By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Election officials in the St. Louis area are expecting many more voters to go to the polls tomorrow than for the presidential primary four years ago.
In St. Louis County, turnout could be as high as 40-percent of registered voters. In 2004, 20-percent of county voters showed up. John Diehl, the chairman of the county's board of election commissioners, says absentee voting is a good indicator of what to expect.
"We expect total absentee for this election to be around 12,000. The past two presidential preference primaries which we've had here in St. Louis County have had absentee ballots of about 5,000. So, we're seeing a slightly more than doubling of what we typically see."
In the city of St. Louis, election officials say they expect turnout of 35-to-40-percent. That would be about twice the number that voted in 2004's primary.