With just over three more hours left to vote in today’s general election, officials are predicting a low turnout.

Arlington County Registrar Linda Lindberg says she’s expecting a roughly 30 percent active voter turnout rate by the time polls close at 7:00 p.m. That would be only slightly higher than the past two comparable off-year elections: 26 percent turnout in 2007 and 29 percent turnout in 2003.

“It’s been pretty slow,” Lindberg said over the phone this afternoon. “It’s an improvement over 2007, but… it’s pretty average.”

Absentee voting was significantly higher than usual this year, however. There have been about 2,200 absentee ballots received so far, compared to 1,360 total received in 2007.