Not too unsurprisingly, the number of eligible voters who participated in early voting this year for the presidential primary was quite low and not a lot of people are expected to vote today, either.

According to county Democratic Elections Commissioner Luz Torres, there were 725 people that participated in early voting in all three sites. Of that amount, 405 were Democrats and 320 were Republicans.

Today is the official presidential primary. Polls will be open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at all 48 polling places in the county.

“We anticipate low voter turnout. We expect it to be slow,” Torres said. “People are just not coming out.”

Torres declined to speculate on why so few people locally have participated in early voting for the presidential primary, although many voters may be not inclined to vote because Donald Trump has essentially locked up the Republican line while President Joe Biden has done the same on the Democratic side.

On March 12, the Associated Press reported that Biden had surpassed the 1,968 needed to lock up the Democratic nomination.

The next day, AP reported that Trump had surpassed the 1,215-delegate threshold needed to become the presumptive Republican nominee.

Even though both Biden and Trump have sown up the nominations of their parties, there are still names on the ballot registered primary voters can choose from.

Registered Democratic voters will be able to select Joseph Biden, Marianne Williamson, or Dean Phillips for president of the United States. They will also be able to select up to six delegates to the Democratic National Convention 23rd Congressional District. There are six names on the ballot Hildo Lando, Terrance Melvin, Majorie Lawlor, Shawn Hogan, Jessica Schuster, and Terrance MacKinnon, so essentially the delegates are running unopposed.

Registered Republican voters will be able to select Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, or Donald Trump for president of the United States.

According to the County Board of Elections, individuals must have been registered with a political party who is having a primary election by Feb. 14.