Facing low turnout in last year’s Democratic primary, Marion Barry predicted that his ward votes in the late afternoon. Now the candidates who want to replace him in the Ward 8 D.C. Council seat better hope that he was right.

So far, turnout has been light across the Ward, which could give an edge to Muriel Bowser pick LaRuby May and her elaborate get-out-the-vote apparatus. Standing outside Ballou High School, where just 78 people had voted around 2 o’clock, candidate Eugene D. Kinlow predicted an after-work voting surge.

By then, Kinlow plans to work his way back to his base in Bellevue to capitalize on it. Meanwhile, candidate Sandra Seegars predicted that early vote totals will surpass the number of votes cast today.

LL hasn’t run into May yet, but her fundraising and endorsements make her the candidate to beat today. Both Kinlow and hopeful Trayon White claim that the special election could become a two-person race between himself and May. Politicking outside Matthews Memorial Baptist Church, White downplayed May’s financial advantage.

“Marion Barry told me, ‘You win the people, you win the Ward,'” White says.

Photo by Will Sommer