Voters go to the polls Tuesday to choose public officials of all stripes, from humble township supervisors to the judges who sit on the highest court in the state.

Mercer County voters will decide who will be the next county controller and whether or not a long-serving county judge should remain on the bench.

Voters in all 31 townships in Mercer County will elect at least one supervisor to a six-year term at the helm of local government, perhaps a tax collector, auditor or assessor. School board seats in every district in Mercer County and Brookfield will be won or lost. City and borough residents will choose councilmen and commissioners and at least two high profile mayoral races will be decided.

The people elected Tuesday will be in charge of maintaining roads, educating your children, making sure your toilets flush and water flows from the taps, building jails and parks, curbing or encouraging development, spending your tax dollars and borrowing money in your name.

Even with all that riding on the balloting, turnout in so-called off-year elections -- really municipal elections -- is usually dismal.

"It's not going to be great," Mercer County elections chief James Bennington said Thursday when asked to make a prediction.

"We're barely going to make 20 percent ... if we go as high as 25 percent it's going to be due to patriotism," Bennington said, referring to the resurgance in national spirit since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Bennington attributed his low-ball prediction to the fact that there's only one countywide contest on the ballot: the race for county controller. County Treasurer Ginny Steese Richardson is running unopposed and the jury commissioners race is a non-competitive one.

Bennington didn't think that recent courthouse scandals would have any effect on turnout.

But there are likely to be pockets of participation. Bennington said he expects a bigger turnout for mayoral races in Sharon and Greenville.

Tuesday's election also has the distinction of being the first election that "counts" with the county's new electronic voting system. The touch-screen system was first used county-wide in the May primary, but winners of those races still have to be elected in this fall election.

The system, which worked well in the primary, cuts down the time it takes to count votes and reduces errors -- there are no chads in an electronic data bank. Counting delays and problems with the ballot in the primary election were tied to problems at the polls and errors programming the machines.

The entire count should be completed within a "couple of hours" if precinct workers don't "dilly dally around," Bennington said.

The new system also makes it easier to write in candidates. Bennington stressed that the system also allows for straight party voting, but it's not as simple as the lever lock on the old voting machines.

Wired voters can follow the count from home. Election results will posted on the county's Web site as they come in Tuesday night.

Across the border in Brookfield, voters will decide zoning in the township, as well as elect two trustees.

Incumbents John "Phil" Schmidt and Gary Paul Lees vie for their seats against former trustees John N. Miller and William Lordo.

A 1-mill continuous school improvement levy for technology and security and an uncontested school board race round out the ballot.

Polls are open in Mercer County from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Brookfield, 7:30 a.m to 8:30 p.m.

Herald Staff Writer Sherris Moreira-Byers contributed to this story.