HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. — Election Day is officially less than two weeks away.

As municipalities in central Indiana prepare for Election Day, local officials say they are anticipating a large turnout.

“For a municipal election, it looks like it’s going to be a record turnout,” said Hamilton County Election Administrator Beth Sheller.

As some voters still weigh their choices ahead of Nov. 7, many already have their minds made. Sheller said nearly 7,000 absentee ballots have already been mailed out and thousands are already returning.

“The most ballots I’ve ever seen returned is in the 2,000s range,” she described. “Maybe a little more than 2,000. So, we’ve already got back well over 3,000 of those. I expect we’ll get back more.”

Early voters are also headed to polls in droves, Sheller said. Hamilton County officials opened six new early voting locations on Thursday on top of the two that were already open. Now the county currently has eight early voting locations. Sheller said more voters showed up on Wednesday at new poll locations than the last two weeks combined.

“Today it’s been very busy since we opened up those satellites,” she said.

Sheller said this is largely tied to the big races in Carmel and Fishers.

“Of course the Carmel mayor race, then you’ve got city council in Carmel and Fishers that have Republicans and Democrats running,” she described.

Over in Marion County, election officials are also seeing an uptick in early voters.

As of Wednesday, local officials report more than 11,000 ballots have been mailed and more than 3,000 have returned. Those numbers are up from close to 5,500 mailed and nearly 3,000 returned in Marion County this same time in 2019.

The deadline to submit an absentee ballot application is Thursday, Oct. 26 at midnight. All absentee ballots need to be received by 6 p.m. on Election Day.