MONROE — Today’s the day when months of planning and preparation will either pay off or not for nine candidates seeking three seats on the Monroe City Council.

Among the incumbents, only John Ashcraft is seeking re-election; P.E. Bazemore and Bob Smith are not running.

Candidates described different strategies they would employ today.

Some, including Surluta Anthony and Margaret Desio, planned on traveling around to as many of the 13 precincts as possible.

“Like a drop in,” Anthony said. “I’ll try to speak to as many people as I can.”

Rick Alexander, however, said he will likely stay at one precinct.

“I find that it doesn’t benefit anybody to go from poll to poll to poll on an election that they’re expecting 6 percent turnout,” he said. “You’re not going to get that many people.”

Alexander said he will spend most of the day at Precinct 30 at Grace United Methodist Church on Secrest Shortcut Road. He said that has the most registered voters and, it’s also his home precinct.

Many candidates expressed concern about the low voter turnout thus far. With fewer than 750 early voters this season, many said there were prepared for a runoff but were hoping there wouldn’t be one.

To calculate a majority, the Union County Board of Elections divides the total votes cast by the number of seats that must be filled and then divides again by two. Any number of votes for one candidate greater than that is considered a majority, and that candidate will be elected.

If no one gets a majority, the top six vote getters will be entered into a runoff. If one person gets a majority, the fourth- and fifth-place finishers can call for a runoff with the second- and third-place finishers.

“The worst thing would be to lose, but the next worst thing would be to be in a runoff,” Desio said.