From 7am to 8pm, voters in Iowa will choose who'll represent them on city councils, commissions and in other positions.
The Des Moines City Council race is expected to increase interest in what usually is a low-turnout election day in Polk County.
The Ward 3 seat on the council has been held by Council Member Christine Hensley for nearly 25 years. She's not running for re-election, but three people who want that seat on the council are spending record amounts of money.
Former Councilman Mike Kiernan has spent over $30,000 on two TV stations alone-not counting the ads being run on Mediacom Cable or the satellite availabilities. Opponent Josh Mandelbaum hasn't spent that much, but has well over $17,000 in commercials on WHO-TV and KCCI-TV, according to the stations' FCC public access filings. Their opponent, Abshir Omar Mahamed, hadn't spent any money on the two stations.
No other central Iowa city council race has invested money in television advertising, according to the FCC reports for the two stations.
Here are the races up for election today:
Des Moines:
Ward 1 - Bill Gray (Incumbent) - unopposed
Ward 3 - Michael Kiernan, Josh Mandelbaum, Abshir Omar Mahamed
At-Large: Connie Boesen, Skip Moore (Incumbent)
West Des Moines:
Mayor: Steven Gaer (Incumbent) - unopposed
Ward 1: Renee Hardman, Rich Messerschmidt (Incumbent)
Ward 3: Russ Trimble (Incumbent), Nadir Mehta
Park Commissioner: Heather Schebel, Rick Swalwell
Urbandale:
Mayor: Robert Andeweg (Incumbent) - unopposed
At Large (vote for two): Ron Pogge, David Russell, Michael Sadler
Bond vote: Issuing $6 million in bonds for construction of the city's 3rd fire station
Windsor Heights:
Mayor: Brent Bialas, Dave Burgess, Tony Timm
At-Large (vote for three): Brenda Beye, Kevin Corkrean, Joseph Jones, Mike Jones, Michael Libbie, Michael J. Loffredo, II, Joseph McConville, Sean Murphy, Jennifer Schumann
Here are the sample ballots for elections in these cities (from the Polk County Auditor's website). Click on the city name to get the November 7th sample ballot:
Clive: Polk County ballot / Dallas County ballot
Grimes: Polk County ballot / Dallas County ballot
WHERE DO YOU VOTE?: Here's a list of polling places in Polk County from the County Auditor's office.