BATON ROUGE — Election Day is Saturday. The primary ballot measure for many across the Baton Rouge area will be the partisan presidential primaries. 

Both the Democrats and Republicans in other states have already selected their party's nominations for the general election in November. Across Louisiana, 39 parishes have only the presidential primaries on the ballot, along with races for state political committees.

But there are a smattering of local elections that Baton Rouge area-residents should keep their eye on. 

In East Baton Rouge Parish, Republican Emily Soulé and nonpartisan Steve Crump are running for the District 8 school board seat previously held by Katie Kennison and Connie Bernard. Baker's voters will also make decisions on a new mayor, police chief and four city council seats.

Iberville Parish is electing a school board member and in St. Gabriel, voters will elect a new city council member. There are also local elections in both Tangipahoa and East Feliciana parishes. 

Figures from the Louisiana Secretary of State's office show that early voting was up 60 percent from the last comparable election, even though most parishes don't have major local issues at stake. This year's early voters totaled more than 163,000—up from 100,000 four years ago. In 2020, the pandemic was raging and Louisiana's presidential primary was held during the summer, making it an outlier among election trends.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, turnout was up 40 percent, reporting a little over 14,000 early votes.

Voters can find information about registration, polling locations and election results here.