The eyes of the nation will be focused on the state of Alabama Tuesday as a high-profile U.S. Senate race between Republican candidate Roy Moore and Democratic candidate Doug Jones comes to a head.

Polls in Selma and Dallas County are scheduled to open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

After having around a 16 percent turnout during the primary with 5,176 votes cast and an eight percent turnout during the runoff with 2,384 votes cast, Suzanne Ingram, chief clerk in the Dallas County Probate Office, said they are expecting between a 13 and 20 percent turnout for the general election.

“We think it is going to be somewhere between 13 and 20 percent. It would be a low turnout, but for a general election with only one contest in it, that’s pretty good,” she said.

“I think every election is important, and I think everyone should exercise that vote every time,” she said. “A U.S. Senate seat is very important to me, but so is the mayor or city councilmen. They all are important. All of our representatives that are representing us are important. If we don’t vote, how can we hold them accountable?”

According to Ingram, there are 31,303 registered voters in Dallas County for this election.

That number is slightly up from September’s runoff between Republican candidates Roy Moore and incumbent Luther Strange. There were 31,086 registered voters in Dallas County for that election. There have been several local efforts over the last several weeks encouraging people to register to vote and to exercise that right.

Jones won the primary in Dallas County with 2,406 votes, which was more than 78 percent of the Democratic vote. Jones has been to Selma at least twice over the last few weeks.

He walked in the annual Selma-Dallas County Christmas Parade on Dec. 2 and spoke this past Saturday at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church with Selma Mayor Darrio Melton by his side. Moore received 945 votes in the primary and 1,302 in the runoff. He has not visited Selma or Dallas County during his campaign.

Poll workers had election school Thursday. Ingram said the voting machines have also been reprogrammed for this election. There are 30 polling locations in Dallas County.