Michelle Wu, Annissa Essaibi George Vote Early, Campaign To The End In Boston Mayoral Election

BOSTON (CBS) - It's all up to the voters now. Boston Mayoral candidates Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George were up early on Tuesday casting their votes at the start of an historic Election Day in the city.

The winner will be the first woman and first person of color elected Mayor of Boston.

Wu voted just after 8 a.m. at the Phineas Bates Elementary School in Roslindale while her city council colleague Essaibi George voted at the Bellflower Apartments in Dorchester when polls opened at 7 a.m.

"Looking forward to a long day of meeting our city's residents, talking to voters and making sure that as I prepare to take leadership of this city that I'm doing it in partnership with the city of Boston's people," Essaibi George told reporters.

"This moment is so significant for Boston. We have a huge opportunity to meet our crises head on, to bring everyone into the conversation," said Wu, who has held a huge lead in polls leading up to Election Day.

"I feel actually very confident in our internal numbers anyway," Essaibi George said. "I know that the polls have shown something different and the polls showed something different going into the preliminary too. They were not accurate, they had me placed fourth in the prelim race and we know that turned out in a certainly different way."

Both candidates then went out to meet voters around the city, hoping to boost what's expected to be a low turnout, despite the historic nature of the election.

Read: Keller: Voter Apathy Can't Be Ignored In Historic Election

Secretary of the State William Galvin said Monday he expects 135,000 ballots to come in by 8 p.m. when polls close Tuesday and he says that's low.

"For whatever reason, I guess no one is terribly frightened by the prospect of either of the finalists becoming mayor, or terribly excited," he said.

In the preliminary election in September, there was a delay getting the results that stretched into the next morning. This time, election officials say they have extra staff helping, and plan to get numbers out sooner, but they say there are no guarantees.