The countdown has begun, and Ela Valladares has her fingers crossed.

For the next few days, there is not much Culver City’s deputy city clerk can do regarding the general election slated for Tuesday, April 13, during which voters will install two candidates onto the five-person Culver City City Council.

She knows mayhem is looming Tuesday night. The hope is there are no last-minute snags that send the stress-o-meter northward in the meantime.

“It’s T-minus six days,” said Valladares during a phone interview Wednesday, April 7. “Right now it’s almost like the calm before the storm.”

That storm will settle into “The Heart of Screenland” beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday, when 13 polling places throw open their doors to registered voters. In election terms, this one is pretty simple as voters will be asked to select two council members from a field of four candidates — incumbent Scott Malsin and newcomers Jeff Cooper, Meghan-Sahli Wells and Robert Zirgulis. There are no additional ballot initiatives, and Valladares expects it will take approximately two hours to count the votes.

For those who choose not to venture to the polls, absentee balloting is already in full swing, with Tuesday, April 6 the final day to request an absentee ballot. According to Valladares, 1,949 absentee ballots had been returned as of that date, including 1,414 permanent ballots (voters who have registered with the city to always have absentee ballots sent to them) and 535 selected ballots (voters who specifically requested absentee status for this election).

“That’s a good amount,” Valladares said. “For the past three, four, five elections the number of absentee ballots coming in keeps increasing.”

Once the polls close at 8 p.m., the ballots will be transferred to the Mike Balkman Council Chambers at City Hall, where city staff will begin tabulating final results with the help of consultant Martin & Chapman, an election services company based in Anaheim.