Rand Levitt's daughter Lyndsay, 11, fed his municipal election ballot into the counting machine Friday at the City Clerk's Office. Lyndsay has accompanied her father to the polls since she was 4 years old.

"We have the right to control our own destiny, and a lot of people don't," Levitt said. "We should exercise our right and our privilege."

Gus Baros, 65, also voted early Friday because he will be traveling this week.

"It's my right," he said when asked why voting was important to him. "It's a free country, and we can vote for what we want and what we believe in, thank God. ... I think the people who come out and vote are the ones that really care, and people who do not vote are the biggest complainers."

They were among the more than 600 registered voters who had cast absentee votes by late Friday.

Turnout among the city's 50,000 voters in Tuesday's election is not expected to exceed 50 percent.

In 2006, with a three-way race for mayor and 10 candidates vying for four council seats, about 30 percent of voters cast ballots. In 2004, 27 percent of voters went to the polls.

This year, there are three contested City Council seats and seven proposed amendments to the City Charter on the ballot, along with a proposal to issue bonds to improve city parks and trails.

District 4 Councilor Matthew Ortiz is running unopposed, as is Municipal Judge Ann Yalman.

In the District 2 race to succeed retiring Councilor Karen Heldmeyer, real-estate agent Robbie Dobyns is running against professional facilitator Rosemary Romero. Retired civil engineer G. Anthony Garcia is challenging incumbent Patti Bushee in District 1, and School Board Member Martin Lujan is opposing incumbent Miguel Chavez in District 3.

The charter amendments on the ballot mostly relate to city elections. Three represent changes to "direct democracy": One would alter the number of signatures required for referendum, recall and initiative; one would establish public campaign financing; and another would implement ranked-choice voting.

Other proposals would change City Council rules to let the mayor vote in more instances and require municipal judge candidates to be attorneys.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.