Voters go to the polls tomorrow in Hamilton and St George in historic elections for the two Corporations.For the first time, all registered voters living in the municipalities will have a say in how their local governments, while taxpayers who are not residents will not.This marks a massive change, and it’s fair to say that no one knows how it will turn out.In Hamilton, rival tickets are running. One is made up largely of the incumbent office-holders while a rival ticket led by former Councillor Graeme Outerbridge is mainly untested.That campaign has primarily seen the ticket led by Mayor Charles Gosling running on its record, while Mr Outerbridge’s ticket has argued that North Hamilton, where the majority of the residents of Hamilton live, has been neglected while the business-oriented areas of Hamilton have benefited.Underlying that argument, as is often the case in Bermuda, is a racial subtext, in that the majority of North Hamilton residents are black while the businesses and landowners in the rest of Hamilton are largely, although not exclusively white.How much that factor plays in the election could well determine the vote.If that’s the case, it would be something of a disappointment for the current Corporation, which has done a good job during its term.As this newspaper stated previously, it has not agreed with all of its decisions, but after inheriting a wide range of problems and a severely gridlocked Corporation which seemed unable to make any decisions, the Gosling ticket quickly set the City to rights and has steered it through a difficult economic period.It did that while attempting to negotiate the change to the franchise and while seeing its revenues fall, not least because Government removed its wharfage revenues and replaced it with a grant, which can and has been lowered at the whim of the Government.If there is a change, the new administration, which has made some extravagant promises, will have to grapple with the difficult problem of providing services with a revenue base which is likely to diminish unless the economy improves.The other challenge for the new Corporation, regardless of who is elected, will be to meet the desires of the largely residential electorate while keeping the now disenfranchised businesses that pay the vast majority of taxes happy.That will not be easy, especially when most Hamilton businesses are struggling with declining revenues and increasingly costly services.As this newspaper stated when the municipalities amendments were passed, many businesses in Hamilton will be less inclined to stay now that they have no say in how their taxes are spent and may look to relocate outside the city boundaries, especially if their businesses are not dependent on physical customers coming through their doors.If anything, the Corporation of St George will face more acute problems in the coming years, given the state of its economy and its own limited tax base and limited revenue.One thing is certain. Tomorrow’s elections will be historic and future Corporations will be more accountable to the residents of the municipalities their predecessors were. How they balance that against the demands of businesses and those people who work and visit will be the critical test.