Polls have closed in the Cortez, Dolores and Mancos municipal elections, and turnout has been excellent, Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder Kim Percell said on Tuesday night.

All three municipalities will elect new council members tonight, and Dolores will also elect a new mayor. Cortez voters will decide on a ballot question that could extend and reduce the sales tax that funds the Cortez Recreation Center. Voters who hadn’t mailed in their ballots could still drop them off at the Cortez, Dolores and Mancos city halls until 7 p.m.

“Voter turnout has been excellent,” Percell said Tuesday night. “There has been a lot of interest in town board positions, and it is exciting to see so many people step up to serve their community.”

Election judges started counting the ballots Monday afternoon, according to Cortez Clerk Linda Smith. Preliminary results were complete by 8:35 p.m..

Early voting turnout has varied between the different towns. In Cortez, 1,357 votes had been mailed in or dropped off as of Tuesday morning. That’s 29 percent of the number of active, registered voters in town, according to Percell. But Smith said that’s fairly typical for Cortez, and she believes the city is on track to beat the turnout of the 2016 municipal election, in which 1,385 people voted.

“My goal is (1,500), but I don’t know if we’ll get there,” Smith said.

In Cortez, eight candidates, including two incumbents, are running for five open seats on the City Council. Cortez voters will also decide on Ballot Question 2A, which would extend and reduce the sales tax that funds the Cortez Recreation Center.

Mancos reported the lowest early voting turnout, with 176 ballots turned in by Monday afternoon – just 22 percent of the town’s active voters. Town Administrator Heather Alvarez said 266 people voted in the town’s uncontested 2016 election.

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we will pass that number,” she said.

This year, five candidates are running for four open seats on the board of trustees in Mancos’ first contested election in several years.

In Dolores, voter turnout was a different story. By Monday, 236 ballots had been turned in, representing 41 percent of the town’s active voters. Town Clerk Lana Hancock said that before this year, the highest voter turnout she’d seen for a municipal election was 156.

“I think there’s just more information out there,” she said. “We have lots of candidates, lots of friends of those candidates, and people just know more about what’s going on.”

This year, 11 candidates are running for four seats on the Dolores Town Board, and two candidates are running for mayor.

All three town halls will stay open until 7 p.m. to collect ballots.