Today, Cottonwood Heights voters will winnow the field of mayoral and City Council candidates for the newly created Salt Lake County city, while south Davis County residents will decide if they want to pay higher taxes for a $23 million makeover of the Bountiful Recreation Center.

The election in Cottonwood Heights, which officially becomes a city in January, is a primary to set the municipal-government slate for the Nov. 2 general election.

In south Davis, political activists are using phone calls and pamphlets to rally voters in Bountiful, Centerville, North Salt Lake, West Bountiful and Woods Cross to get to the polls at a time when most voters' thoughts are far from elections.

"We'd like to think everyone pays as much attention to these special-interest issues as we do, but the reality is, the average taxpayer in Utah is too busy keeping food on the table to keep track of these things 24-7," said Mike Jerman of the business-backed Utah Taxpayers Association.

The group, which opposes the $18 million recreation bond, supports the Legislature's decision to override Gov. Olene Walker's veto of a bill that limits bond elections to June primaries and November general elections. But the new decree does not take effect until January, making today's south Davis County recreation-center bond election the last of its kind.

Officials are hoping an August election won't keep voters away.

"Higher turnout is better for everybody," Bountiful City Manager Tom Hardy said. "That's why we are doing everything we can to get the word out to people to get out and vote.

"But we also know that if we'd waited until November, the voters would be facing multiple issues - and it's unlikely they would have really studied them all," Hardy said. "This allows [voters] to focus on just this one item, and they are free to vote their conscience."

In Cottonwood Heights, the list of five mayoral candidates - Suzanne B. Bitter, Chad Booth, Kelvyn H. Cullimore Jr., Jerri A. Harwell and Jim Keane - will be cut to two finalists.

Voters also will chose from among more than 30 candidates for four City Council seats. Two people in each council district will advance to the fall election.

Earlier this year, voters overwhelmingly approved forming Salt Lake County's 16th city out of concern about banning billboards, taking financial control of their area's tax money and avoiding the annexation of their neighborhoods by nearby cities.

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Voter information

l Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the south Davis County bond election and the Cottonwood Heights primary.

The Davis County Clerk's Office called more than 18,000 homes Monday evening reminding voters in Bountiful, West Bountiful, Woods Cross, North Salt Lake and Centerville about the election. For information on where to vote, call 451-3550 or visit http://www.daviscountyutah.gov. To learn where to vote for Cottonwood Heights, call the Salt Lake County Clerk's Office at 468-3427 or visit http://www.clerk.slco.org.

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