Mary Rodgers, left, Helen Bennett, center, and Barbara Cook count numbers of advance ballot totals by precinct Monday in the County Commission meeting room of the Douglas County Courthouse. The three women are among the about 500 temporary election workers who helping with this year's general election.

Before the Douglas County’s 60 polling sites open at 7 a.m. Tuesday, more than 27 percent of county voters will have already cast their ballots.

Douglas County Election Supervisors Joanna Wiorkiewicz-Kuczera and Keith Wood pick up Monday materials needed for their polling sites for Tuesday's election at Building 21 in the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said 15,112 county voters cast in-person advance voting ballots before that option ended at noon Monday. The clerk’s office had also received 6,492 mail-in ballots as of Monday morning, of the 7,800 sent out to county voters, Shew said. The office should receive about another 1,400 mail-in ballots, he said.

Those who haven’t returned mail-in ballots have until 7 p.m. Tuesday to get them to the Douglas County Clerk’s Office, Shew said. There is a dropbox in the courthouse’s south parking lot for that purpose; it will be checked throughout the day, he said.

The 21,604 ballots already in hand Monday shattered the county’s old record of 16,800 set in the 2008 November general election, Shew said. But even with the impressive advance voting totals, Shew doesn’t expect turnout this year to top 2008 when President Barack Obama was on the top of the Democratic ticket for the first time.

Shew said heavy turnout in University of Kansas student precincts contributed to a record 55,000 county voters participating in the 2008 November general election. With fewer students voting in those precincts in 2012, the turnout total fell to 50,000, he said.

“I’m predicting a number somewhere in the middle this year of about 52,000,” he said. “I don’t see at the moment we’re going to have a 2008 student turnout.”

With about 81,000 registered voters, that would be 64 percent turnout in Douglas County, Shew said. That’s less than the 70 percent turnout Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is predicting statewide, but Douglas County tends to have a lower turnout because of its student population, the county clerk said.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. County residents can find a sample of the ballot they will receive at their precincts and directions to their polling sites online at douglascountyks.org/depts/voting-and-elections. If you are not sure where to vote, you can also call the clerk’s office at 832-5167.