At 6:30 a.m., the polls open. At the end of today, residents of Beaufort County will know which Democrats and which Republicans will take the next step in seeking office.

A number of those races — from North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat, down to Beaufort County Commissioners — will be decided by today’s primary.

For the U.S. Senate race, eight Republicans, two Democrats and two Libertarians are running against Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan. In the District 1 U.S. House of Representatives race, which encompasses P.S. Jones Ward 3, Washington Ward 1 and Washington Ward 2, two Republican candidates and one Democratic candidate will take on Democratic incumbent G.K. Butterfield. The District 3 U.S. House primary race is limited to two Republicans vying for Republican Walter Jones’ seat.

More locally, Democratic voters will decide between District 1 N.C. Senate Democratic candidates Stan White and Judy Krahenbuhl, one of which will run against incumbent Republican Bill Cook in November’s election; as with N.C. House District 6, for which today’s primary will decide whether Ashley Woolard or Mattie Lawson, both Republicans, will advance to run against Democratic incumbent Paul Tine.

Only three of five Republicans — Ron Buzzeo, Don Cox, Stan Deatherage, Keith Kidwell, Frankie Waters — will move on to run for Beaufort County Commissioner after today’s primary.

A packed race for Beaufort County Sheriff will produce candidates for the office out of a field of nine: Democrats Todd Alligood, Gary Blount, Russell Davenport, Val Scales and Al Whitney; Republicans Ernie Coleman, Donald Dixon, Rick Guthrie and Harry Meredith.

“Tomorrow night’s going to be interesting,” said Kellie Hopkins, director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections

However, with all of these races, one party’s candidate pulling in 40 percent of the vote determines if a second primary for a given race will be held, according to Hopkins. Whether that election will be held in June or July depends on what happens in the Federal races: if either the U.S. Senate or U.S. House seat goes to a second primary, those and all other second primaries will be held on July 15. If not, second primaries will be held on June 24, Hopkins said.

Early voting for the primary election started April 24, and wrapped up May 3, with a turnout that has exceeded officials’ expectations.

“There’s been a decent turnout for an off-year primary,” said Kellie Hopkins, Beaufort County Board of Elections director.

Though the early voting window was reduced from 17 days to 10 days this election cycle, the number of hours available for residents to vote remained the same, leading officials to lengthen the number of hours the Washington polling site stayed open, as well as open satellite sites in three places throughout the county on April 29. According to Hopkins, on that day, Chocowinity processed more votes than the Washington office, 306 to 121.

Early voting voter response has been greatest in the Chocowinity area, according to Hopkins. In Chocowinity, 522 votes were tallied; the next greatest number has come from Washington Ward Four, with 234 votes. Edward had the fewest number of registered voters turn out for early voting, with 15.

“Cypress Landing always has a high turnout during One Stop (voting),” Hopkins said.

Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. today.