The Springfield area's top election official said turnout was light on Tuesday morning.
That's despite a hotly contested primary election for key offices including a Missouri U.S. Senate seat and the Congressional representative for the Springfield-Branson-Joplin area.
"It's been a little lighter than expected, but it's been steady, just kind of a steady slow turnout today," Schoeller told KSMU.
He said turnout was measured at just over 7 percent of eligible Greene County voters around 10 a.m.
He is "hoping to get somewhere" in the range of 30 percent or more, Schoeller said.
"It's hard to predict, in terms of voters, what they're going to do on any one election day," Schoeller said.
Springfield and southwest Missouri were under a heat advisory on Tuesday set to last through 8 p.m. Wednesday. The heat indexes in the forecast could be up to 100 to 108 degrees, the National Weather Service said.
"Never to my recollection has it been this hot in terms of an August election, so it could be potentially impacting turnout," Schoeller said.
But he said polling places are open until 7 p.m. "And so voters if they want to come even in the latter part of the day, when it's a little bit cooler, we'll be open then as well."
Schoeller reminded voters whose polling place is Parkview High School that there is construction nearby on the Grant Avenue Parkway, but they can access the polls. Same goes for the polling site at the James River West church location, he said.
As far as technology problems at polling sites, Schoeller said, "we've had a couple of issues, but they've all been corrected."
Only a "handful" of Greene County poll workers had to miss the day due to COVID-19 or other reasons, Schoeller said.
Schoeller reiterated that polls stay open until 7 p.m. Information on polling locations, voter ID and more is available on the County Clerk website.
