for the top job of mayor and several city council seats. 2011 merrill candidates frank conway, opis rolleynie rawlings- blake and alfred griffin and havingy ann harding. -- vikki ann harding. stephanie rawlings-blake is mounting her first campaign for this office. and we caught up with the baltimore city elects director earlier this morning and here's what he has to say about voter turnout. >> i would hope to see at least 30%, 40% of the citizens come out. seems as though citizens are not motivated to come out and vote. but, we want to encourage them to come out. we are ready for you. judges are in place and all staff is in place. if they have problems, they can call the board of elections at 410-396-5550. and we will be happy to answer questions they have. >> reporter: now he also said they have well trained election judges. about 2100 of them and they are well prepared for the start of the primary election day which kicks off at 7 this morning. reporting live in downtown baltimore, sherrie johnson, abc2 news. >> again polls open in a few minutes. 9 minutes to be exact. they will remain o