In exactly one week we will be holding election day.

Well, okay, it’s a primary election, rather than the general balloting which will come in the autumn. Except for the school board seats, which will be chosen on May 4.

All of the rest of the names appearing on next week’s ballot will be in primary races, where voters will be selecting who will represent each political party in the fall election.

If you don’t want to wait until May 4, there is the early voting and one-stop registration and voting going on at several locations through Saturday.

Local election officials seemed to indicate yesterday that turnout was a little light, but that they were not surprised, given it’s a primary and not a general election.

We hope voters do not hold this attitude, but instead they will turn out in numbers at least equal to what they did in the last general presidential election.

Local races sometimes don’t seem as intriguing, but they are vital. What board holds more responsibility than the school board, which makes decisions that directly affect our community’s next generation.

If there is a weakness in the American election system, it is that the entire operation is set up to favor two parties and exclude all others. It is often a matter of choosing between the lesser of two evils, whoever the Democratic and Republican parties hoist upon us.

That is why primaries are important, because they give voters the opportunity to have some say in who will be filling those party places in the fall election.

One of the great privileges Americans have is the right to vote. We hope those people living in Surry County will exercise that right, even if it is an “off election.”