Election Day has arrived for Will County.

Voters on Tuesday will cast the final votes in local races ranging from mayors to sanitary district trustees.

Polling places open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

More than 28,000 people already had cast their ballots in early and mail-in voting as of Monday afternoon, according to the Will County Clerk Office’s website.

That’s a fraction of the 454,714 people registered to vote in Will County. But typically it’s a fraction of the electorate who turn out for local elections even though they hit closest to home.

The vast majority of voters are not likely to head to their polling places, if 2023 repeats the pattern of past local elections.

In the last local elections in 2021, about 78,000 people voted for a turnout of about 17%.

Turnout in Joliet should be higher because of a hotly contested mayoral race, which was not on the ballot in 2021, along with 16 candidates vying for five seats on the City Council.

But weather, too, could affect turnout if forecasts of potentially severe weather arriving by late afternoon or early evening Tuesday prove true.

The weather also could affect how soon final results get posted Tuesday night, said Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry.

“We have protocol for severe weather if that’s an issue,” Staley Ferry said.

In a normal year, all 310 precincts in Will County should be posted on the county clerk’s website sometime between 9 and 10 p.m., Staley Ferry said.

While weather could dampen turnout in the evening hours, a new law increased the number of mail-in votes. This is the first local election in which voters previously signed up to automatically get a mail-in ballot set to their homes.

The county clerk’s office sent out more than 39,000 mail-in ballots, but fewer than 16,000 were returned as of Monday afternoon.

In-person early voting “is looking like it’s right on par as it was for 2021,” Staley Ferry said, suggesting so far there’s no sign of an increase in turnout for the local elections.

More than 200 offices and referenda are at stake in elections around Will County.

They include a bond referendum in Joliet to fund the construction of new schools that would replace Gompers Junior High School and Hufford Junior High School.

School board positions around the county also are on the ballot, along with village trustees, fire protection districts and other governmental bodies filled with elected officials that are neighbors or at least fellow townspeople of anyone who votes.