Voters fill out their ballots at Florian Hall in Dorchester during the preliminary election.
Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/Metro
It’s preliminary election day in Boston and so far thousands of people have turned out to vote.
As of noon nearly 40,000 people had cast ballots throughout the city, according to the city’s election department. Boston has more than 365,000 registered voters, meaning that turnout so far Tuesday was about 10.7 percent.
At 9 a.m., the department reported that 17,251 ballots had been cast.
The total voter turnout for the 2009 preliminary election was more than 23 percent of registered voters.
With 12 candidates vying to become the next mayor of Boston, election officials predicted a higher turnout for this year’s preliminary election than the last one because of the mayor’s race.
The top two vote earners after the polls close at 8 p.m. will face off in the general election in November.
Mayor Thomas Menino announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election after serving 20 years as mayor.
Metro recently asked the mayoral candidates a question about theirplans for keeping young adults in Boston.
The city’s website offers information to find polling places for people who haven’t yet voted.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
