BUTLER — The director of the Butler County Bureau of Elections expects about half of registered voters to participate in Tuesday’s election.

Shari Brewer admitted that the ballot this year has few contested races, but added that the governor’s race between incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett and Democrat Tom Wolf could bring a lot of interest.

In addition, races between incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, and Democrat Dan LaVallee and between incumbent state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, and Democrat Lisa Zucco could result in an uptick in voter participation.

“Being that there’s not too much on the ballot, we expect things to go smoothly,” she said. “But anything can happen.”

Tuesday’s election will be the culmination of months of work for Brewer and her staff.

The elections bureau starts focusing on this election immediately after the primary in May, work that includes coordinating the location of 89 polling places as well as staffing those locations with poll workers.

One surprise for this election, Brewer said, is that absentee ballots are down by nearly 1,000 votes from 2010.

As of Friday, Brewer said her office had received only 1,445 absentee ballots, compared to the 2,360 received in the 2010 federal elections.

“That could be because there’s not a whole lot on the ballot,” Brewer said. “But it’s hard to say what motivates people to vote.”

Brewer noted there aren’t any new rules or policies for this election, which makes her job easier and the voting process easier for voters.

The only confusing aspect of this election involves a referendum that will appear on ballots in Adams Township concerning reducing the number of township supervisors.

Brewer said the referendum has been overturned by Judge Michael Yeager, although that decision was made too late to get the referendum off the ballot. That means votes will not be tallied for the referendum even though it will be on ballots.

Ed Natali, the chairman of the county Republican Committee, said that he’s looking forward to Tuesday’s election, if only for the fact that he anticipates several victories for state and federal offices.

“Right now we’re galvanizing the troops and finalizing everything for Election Day,” he said. “We’re excited and looking forward to completing the victory.”

Natali added that he’s “optimistic” about the races concerning Corbett, Kelly and Metcalfe.

“Mike is a fighter and is going to work, like he always does, through to the last minute, and that’s the same case with Daryl,” he said. “The governor is going to continue to get out his message to voters, too.”

Georgiann Kerr, the chairwoman of the county Democratic Committee, said she’s excited for the chance to unseat Corbett, Kelly and Metcalfe.

“That would be an excellent, very successful election,” she said.

Although Butler County favors Republican candidates, Kerr said voter registration numbers show the gap between the two parties isn’t too wide.

The difference, she said, is that Democrats need to do a better job of getting out to vote.

“We can do it if they come out to vote. That’s the key right now,” Kerr said. “We’re doing all of our homework, calling people to get out to vote. We’re very excited about the election.”

The polls open on Tuesday at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Brewer said there are 122,109 registered voters in Butler County, with 62,573 of those being Republicans and 42,565 being Democrats. There are 819 registered as Libertarian, and 16,152 registered as “other.”