By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- Voters head to the polls today to pick a mayor and City Council members for Durham's three wards.

County Board of Elections workers will open city precincts at 6:30 a.m. They will remain open for business until 7:30 p.m.

Mayor Bill Bell, running for his fifth term, faces challenger Steven Williams in the ballot's top race. Williams tried to run in 2005 but pulled out of that campaign because his then-residence wasn't in the city limits.

All three council races pit incumbents against first-time candidates.

In Ward 1, Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden is running for her third term against first-time challenger Donald Hughes.

Longtime Ward 2 incumbent Howard Clement is trying to fend off a challenge from Libertarian Matt Drew, while in Ward 3 incumbent Mike Woodard is running for his second term against Allan Polak.

On the campaign trail, Williams and Hughes have questioned whether the council has done enough to help inner-city neighborhoods, while Drew has argued that the city's present menu of services and taxes is unsustainable.

Polak has argued that Woodard as a Duke University employee has a disqualifying conflict of interest that precludes service on the council, and joined Hughes in questioning how well council members are monitoring the work of the city staff.

The incumbents counter that a revitalized downtown and big-ticket investments like the Holton Career and Resource Center on Driver Street show that they have Durham on the right track.

They have also openly run as a team, with Bell leading them in taking shots at the challengers as people who "haven't been there" while the council has been busy improving the community.

Although the three council seats at stake today represent wards, the vote for each will occur citywide. Candidates have to live in their ward, but to win have to gain a majority of the people who cast ballots today.

Board of Elections officials say 1,006 people cast ballots during the early voting period that ended this past Saturday. That's 112 more than took advantage of early voting before last month's primaries that winnowed the field in Wards 2 and 3.

Results announced tonight will be unofficial. The board will count provisional ballots -- cast by people unsure of their registration status or which precinct they should vote in -- Friday and then canvass the results next Tuesday.