BATON ROUGE - Political analysts say Saturday's runoff election for Mayor-President is too close to call.

Incumbent Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is being challenged by former state lawmaker Steve Carter, after getting close to winning re-election in November.

"About five weeks ago, she missed winning outright by about four thousand votes," said political analyst Clay Young. "That's how small the margin was. I really think surrogates and getting out the voting machinery will win the day."

Young is a veteran political consultant. He expects turnout at the polls on Saturday will be lower than in November. This says a huge number of people voted early.

"We had a record-breaking number in early voting numbers in November. The run-off is down 26 percent, so interest has waned a little bit," Young said.

A spike in violent crime in East Baton Rouge has a lot of voters favoring the candidate they feel can best address that issue. Young says voters are also concerned about the Covid impacted economy that's leaving people uncertain about the future.

"Psychologically, there are a number of people who are going to be thinking about 'Who's going to work in my best interest as I move into the new year'?" Young said.

Polls open at 7 AM and close at 8 PM.