VOTER'S GUIDE: What you Need to Know to Make Today's Primary Vote

It's certainly not as glamorous as the general election coming up in November, but there are some important races that will be decided in today's primary election.

For your voting and poll watching pleasure, here's a quick guide to some things to expect. 

Click here for the Johnson County Auditor's page, where you can find out voting location info and check in on turnout and results as the day goes on.

No candidates will be elected today. What will be decided is who will run, from what their respective parties, in the upcoming election.

Offices that will on today's ballot:

US Representative, 2nd Congressional District
State Representative, Districts 73, 74*, 77**, 85*, 86*
County Supervisor: three seats (currently held by Harney, Neuzil, Sullivan)*
County Auditor
County Sheriff*

* Incumbents running unopposed

** No incumbent for this district due to redistricting

When to Vote: From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Where to Vote: Click here to look on a list of voting precints, and here's a streetmap to help you find your precinct. Or you can search by your address.

The Races to Watch

For Iowa Citians, there are really only a few contests that are actually heavily contested, and the races you'll be paying attention to depends on your party.

For Iowa City Republicans

This is about as straight forward as you can get: Choose which candidate you want to face either incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Dave Loebsack or his challenger Joe Seng in the fall in the newly minted second U.S. congressional district.

Will it be John Archer, a lawyer from Bettendorf?

Or 

Will it be Dan Dolan, the owner of Dan Dolan Homes who lives in Muscatine?

Here's a profile on Dolan, and here's a profile on Archer.

Here's a big picture overview of the second U.S. District Race from the Associated Press.

For Iowa City Democrats

On the Democratic side, incumbent Dave Loebsack is vying for a third term in a new district this time, which now includes the Quad Cities. He is facing a primary challenge from popular state senator Joe Seng, out of Davenport.

However, Seng doesn't appear to be trying that hard. And with the huge advantage incuments have in primary elections, it'd be hard to see Loebsack losing, barring a huge Seng landslide win in the Iowa half of the Quad Cities.

The big race for Democrats this round is incumbent Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett, versus Tiffin City Council member Travis Weipert.

Slockett is vulnerable this election due to , including a recent reprimand for ethics violations. Weipert promised to against Slockett, instead emphasizing his fiscal expertise and fresh approach to the job. However, it would be tough to imagine Slockett would have lost the support of well known local Democrats, as he did this election cycle, if these incidents had not occurred. Many of these Democrats have thrown their political weight behind Weipert, including endorsements on this site and .

Slockett, however, is a long term auditor for a reason, and he is touting his accomplishments and experience as reasons to give him another term. Here are endorsements for Slockett: click here and here.

Here's a preview of the auditor race from Gregg Hennigan of the Gazette.

Have any final endorsements for any candidate? Leave them in comments. Other than that, good luck to all candidates today and to all you readers out there, get out and vote!