By MATT PIKE St. Joseph Post With a number of local issues that will impact the community, officials are expecting a low voter turnout for today's election. Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack Garvey says it's surprising to her how quiet voters have been in this election thus far. "Our absentees, the people that came into the counter, we barely broke 100 people," Baack Garvey tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So, I'm going to predict about an 11% turnout for today for all around Buchanan County." In Buchanan County, voters will choose two new St. Joseph School Board members, whether recreational marijuana sales will be taxed, and whether to extend the quarter-cent sales tax for the Buchanan County EMS ambulance service. The school board race is crowded with nine candidates on the ballot for two open positions. St. Joseph School District voters will choose among these candidates: Whitney Lanning, Brian Shewell, Jonathon Bell, Harold B. Barr Jr., Bradly G. Huett, Jennifer Kerns, Amanda Cook, Don Crabtree, and Richard Gehring. Baack Garvey says she's hopeful those numbers will turn out higher and encourages voters to get out and vote. "These elections impact us the most locally, so I just really wish that our voters would get out there and realize that, that they need to vote on their local election, their issues, that affect them immediately not federally," Baack Garvey says. "So, it does kind of surprise me that no one has really showed up to vote quite yet, we'll see what happens today." Baack Garvey says voter turnout could end up higher with more people getting out with the weather expected to be nicer Baack Garvey says these elections have more of an impact on the community and that every issue is just as important as the others. "Especially our school board, I mean they're there to support our kids and do the right decisions for our children and that impacts our economic development, so school board I think is probably the highest priority," Baack Garvey explains. "But honestly everything on the ballot today impacts everyone in some way." Polls are open until 7pm.