WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) – From the 2020 Election fight to mask mandates and COVID restrictions, more Kansans than ever are registered to vote and are paying attention to what their elected officials are doing.

But that’s not expected to translate to a higher turnout for Tuesday’s primary.

In Sedgwick County only about 500 voters turned out early to cast their ballots in person. That’s not counting mail-in ballots already returned.

Those who have shown up are Kansans who always vote.

“Every one that comes up,” Betty Kelly said about how often she votes.

Kelly isn’t the only faithful voter coming in to cast her ballot Monday morning.

“I try to be pretty consistent,” Rebecca Waller said. “Vote, you know, whenever there’s a chance to vote.”

Theirs are the faces poll workers see every Election Day. They pay attention to the issues.

“I think the city, like the whole United States, has kind of let our infrastructure go,” Waller said about what drew her to this primary.

And they check out the candidates, like the dozen Wichitans vying for just two seats on the City Council.

“I had a hard time,” Kelly said about making the decision on who to vote for. “I went to Google and trying to figure out who was who and what is what.”

But what happened to the hundreds of thousands of registered voters who joined them at the polls last November? And filled city council and county commission meetings to argue over mask mandates and COVID restrictions?

Political analyst Dr. Neal Allen from Wichita State University says they’re just not interested in the races on the ballot this August.

“The pandemic has shown us how important local government is now. The problem is, the city council doesn’t have a whole lot of COVID authority. Most of that is with the county commission here,” Allen said.

He adds, there’s not even a hotly contested mayoral race, like the 2019 race, to get voters’ attention.

“Last mayor’s race was extremely interesting for a lot of voters. We had three very well-funded and energetic candidates,” Allen said. “This ballot doesn’t have anything quite like that.”

Yet, as low as the 500 early voter turnout sounds, it’s a jump compared to the 2017 city primary in Sedgwick County. It saw an early voter turnout of just 350.

One question that we don’t have an answer to yet, is how many Kansans will continue to cast their ballots by mail after trying it out for the first time last November?

The polls in Sedgwick County open at 6 a.m. Tuesday.