If you’ve ever complained about something wrong with our government, you now have a chance to do something about it.

In less than two weeks, voters will be heading to the polls across Alabama to participate in our primary elections. March 13 may actually be a much more important day to vote than even the general election in November.

This is when we select who the party nominees will be for each office from U.S. President to our county commission. While it is important to select our nominees for U.S. President, it may actually be more important who we select to our local offices than it does for our country’s top leader.

Our local representatives have much more to say about our daily lives than our president does. It’s our county commission that helps provide services such as county law enforcement and road maintenance and helps fund local projects such as community centers and county parks. Our county commissioners, mayors, city council members are involved with attracting new business to our area.

Our U.S. Representative is the one who helps us get federal grants for items such as fire trucks, airport upgrades, federal highway improvements, flood mitigation and infrastructure improvements.

If you don’t select the best men and women for these positions, then you could have a much more dysfunctional government.

So take the time to get involved with this election. Learn who the candidates are. Research the issues. And if you’re not registered to vote, then sign up today.

If you’re at least 18 years old and you want to be a voter for the election, all you need to do is to fill out a simple voter registration form from the Board of Registrars Office at the County Courthouse. The form doesn’t take more than five minutes to fill out. But hurry – the deadline to register for the March 13 election is this Friday.

We will also publish a few stories on the election in our March 6 edition focusing on our local elections. We’ll also include a sample ballot in that issue.

Our hope is that we’ll have a high voter turnout for the election. Getting involved with our election process is the only way to make our democracy work for all.