Have you voted yet?

Early voting is underway.

You get to decide who will help lead Thomasville, Thomasville City Schools and Cairo in the coming four years.

As we have said previously, this election should be about vision coupled with the skill sets to get things done. This election should be far more than a popularity contest or a mere matter of who is the best public speaker.

The Nov. 5 election will be here before you know it, but more and more people are opting to cast a ballot during the early voting period and why shouldn’t we all? It is convenient, lines are not long and you can do it at various times through the day during the couple of weeks that have been set aside.

We encourage our readers to be informed voters. No one should vote for someone simply because they think the candidate is a nice person, they attend church together, are in the same civic club, are relatives or part of a certain social circle. You should vote for the person you think will do the best job.

Campaigns should be looked at as job interviews.

Elections should be more about principle than politics.

The vote is our ultimate recourse.

You may have concerns regarding how city government is doing the people’s business. You may have concerns about government transparency, government spending, city taxes, business regulations or government services. Who do you support?

Do you know the positions of the candidate(s) you support on these and other relevant issues facing our community?

The voting booth is our opportunity to influence the future of our city.

We elect members of city councils and school boards to make important decisions that will affect our cities’ futures.

We hope turnout is robust this go around. It is disheartening that only a small portion of registered voters tend to make it to the polls.

Be informed. Make wise decisions based on ideologies, past performance, platforms and matters of principle, rather than on personality, popularity or party alone.

Then, go vote.