JACKSONVILLE — The turnout seemed nearly as brisk as the weather this morning as voters cast ballots in the special election for Alabama House District 40.

At Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church, where all three candidates in the race are registered to vote, 380 had cast ballots by noon. That nearly matched the 438 voters at that polling place in the Jan. 5 Republican primary.

Voters braved temperatures in the mid-30s to cast their ballots, and a few walked through swirling snow flurries to get to the polls.

Democrat Ricky Whaley voted just before noon. Poll workers said Republican K.L. Brown and independent candidate Carol Hagan both cast ballots earlier in the morning.

All three are running to fill the vacancy created after Rep. Lea Fite died of a heart attack in October. The winner will serve out the remainder of Fite’s term. Voters will go to the polls in June primaries and another general election in November to select a representative for the next full four-year term.

Elections Clerk Evelyn Austin said voting at First Baptist had been steady all morning.

She said it seemed like ballots were being cast “about every six seconds.”

Across town at the much smaller polling place at West Side Baptist Church, poll inspector Gussie Dodson said about 44 people had voted by midday. That exactly matches the number of votes counted there in the primary.

The last weeks of the race have seen heavy advertising by Brown and Whaley, with each side charging the other was engaging in negative attacks.

Rodney and June Shirey of Jacksonville, who cast their ballots at the First Baptist Church just before noon, said they’d received seven or eight phone calls from pollsters trying to gauge their leanings or sway their support.

Brown, Hagan and Whaley all live within a few blocks of the sprawling, steepled church. The Shireys said they knew all three candidates. They voted for Whaley.

Holli Edwards of Jacksonville said she’d received “tons” of mailers from Brown and Whaley.

“And lots of phone calls,” she said, standing in the flurries outside First Baptist.

The advertising had no effect on her support for Brown, she said.

Polls are open until 7 p.m.