Voters could battle heat and possibly rain as they take to the polls during today’s Republican and Democratic primaries in advance of the Nov. 2 general election.

Political pundits expect an Aug. 10 runoff will be needed to settle the races for governor and a few state races.

Walker County has no contested races that are strictly local. Two county school board seats are on the ballots, but both incumbents are uncontested.

As of 9:50 a.m. today, about 165 people had cast ballots at the Chickamauga city precinct, which has nearly 5,300 registered voters.

According to Helen Gamble, assistant manager for the LaFayette precinct, as of 10:10 a.m. about 85 votes had been cast at the precinct, which has nearly 4,550 registered voters.

Gamble said an estimated 98 percent of voters so far have been Republicans. “I can count the Democrats on one hand,” Gamble said.

Gamble said Republican voters have “overwhelmingly outnumbered” Democratic voters, but it is still too early to tell how the rest of the day will be and the morning has been “slow”.

Gamble said there had been a majority turnout of young and elderly voters, with few middle-aged voters.

Meanwhile, in Catoosa County there are two strictly local races that are contested: District 2 and District 4 on the Board of Commissioners.

As of 10:15 a.m. today at the Ringgold voting precinct, about 80 people had cast ballots. The precinct has about 6,390 registered voters. Neither of the county commissioner elections is on the Ringgold precinct ballot. As of 10 a.m. at the Fort Oglethorpe precinct, about 45 people had cast ballots. The precinct has about 7,400 registered voters.

Here are the candidates for the District 2 Catoosa County commission post. The precincts in this district are Boynton, Duncan Park and Westside:

· Incumbent Bobby Winters, 65, lives in Ringgold. He is retired and is running on a Republican ticket.

· Mark Lindsay, 43, lives in Rossville. He is employed as the building official for Fort Oglethorpe. He is running on a Republican ticket.

· Stephanie Dickert, 40, is a resident of Ringgold. She is an accountant and is running on a Republican ticket.

Here are the candidates for the District 4 Catoosa County commission post. The precincts in this district are Blackstock, Catoosa Keith, Poplar Springs and Woodstation.

· Incumbent Dewayne Hill, 59, lives in Ringgold. He is a business owner and is running on a Republican ticket.

· Warren Tatum, 48, lives in Ringgold. He is an electrician and is running on a Republican ticket.

Polls are open today until 7 p.m. Voters unsure of their precinct location can obtain the address from the Georgia Secretary of State website under the voting section.

State law limits acceptable photo ID to the following six options:

A Georgia driver’s license, any federal or state-issued identification card, a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID card, an employee ID from a federal, state or local government entity or a tribal ID card.

An expired license is still acceptable.

While polls close at 7 p.m., tallies will not be official until after the military ballot deadline on Friday.

For the Walker-Catoosa area, the National Weather Service is predicting a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today, mainly after 2 p.m. Today’s high will be 92, with a heat index as high as 98.