Tuesday’s heavily contested county commissioner primary election is sure to send Butler County voters flocking to the polls. Right?

Probably not, says Shari Brewer, county director of elections.

“But,” she said, “I hope I’m wrong.”

Brewer predicted turnout at 20 percent to 25 percent. That’s not some wild guess. Give or take, that’s within the county’s recent historical range for turning out — or not turning out — to cast off-year primary ballots.

While the only statewide races are for three seats on the Supreme Court and one each on the Superior and Commonwealth courts, there are other interesting contests for Republican and Democratic voters.

And in some municipalities, there’s even reason — in the form of ballot questions — for nonRepublicans and nonDemocrats to hit the polls.

Arguably, the featured race in Butler County is for county commissioner.

There are 10 GOP candidates and another Republican waging a write-in campaign. On the other side, four Democrats are running.

Each party has two nominations up for grabs in the commissioners’ contest.

Winning the nod to run in November has turned into an expensive proposition as many hopefuls have spent freely to fuel their campaigns.

But is anyone paying attention to all that advertising? Maybe. Maybe not.

“I was kind of hoping with the commissioners’ race and with more candidates than usual in it, there would be more interest in the (primary),” Brewer. “There’s not, I’m afraid.”

The number of absentee ballots that came into the office, which is comparable to recent off-year primaries, suggests a spike in turnout Tuesday is unlikely.

Two years ago, the county’s primary turnout was fractionally better than 18 percent. It was 24 percent in the 2011 primary.

According to the elections office, there are 61,676 Republicans and 40,703 Democrats eligible to vote Tuesday.

Additionally, 560 voters not affiliated with either major party can vote. Those nonpartisan eligible voters live in Brady, Lancaster, Venango and Worth townships and in Portersville, where ballots will pose a question.

In each of those municipalities, voters will be asked if they want nonprofit organizations to raise funds with raffles, punch boards and other small games of chance.

Polls in the county’s 89 voting precincts will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. The top vote-getters will proceed to the Nov. 3 election.

While voters will find their share of offices with just one candidate or no candidates, the ballots will also feature competitive races for important elected positions.

Among the races for school boards in the county, Butler, Karns City, Mars and one region of Slippery Rock have enough candidates to have races.

On select ballots, there are also choices to be made for other municipal offices including township supervisor, borough council and mayor.

Countywide, the only contested race is on the GOP ticket with four candidates running for register of wills/clerk of orphans’ court.

For the district judge seat in Butler, there are three candidates, all who have cross-filed and are seeking both the Republican and Democratic nominations.