Polls Open For Hotly Contested Mayoral, City Council Races

Polls opened Tuesday morning for preliminary elections for Boston's mayor and city council.

Election watchers are expecting a larger turnout than usual. That's because Mayor Thomas Menino faces three challengers, as he goes for an unprecedented fifth term. His challengers are City Councilor Michael Flaherty, City Councilor Sam Yoon and South End businessman Kevin McCrea.

With Flaherty and Yoon running, that leaves two open seats on the Boston City Council for the first time in years.

Avi Green from the voting rights group MassVote says the wild card in this election is the thousands of new Boston voters who first registered during last year's presidential campaign.

"They tend to be young people, they tend to be disproportionately people of color and new arrivals in the city, people who recently got their citizenship," Green said.

Polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.