Early voting is here.

Registered voters get to decide who will lead and represent them locally and statewide in the coming four years.

Candidates are running for various city and county posts in Lowndes County. Statewide, voters are choosing a governor, a senator and many other Georgia leaders. Many local and state candidates face no opposition this election cycle, while a few do.

The Valdosta Daily Times looks at the contested Valdosta City Council and Lowndes County Commission races in the Oct. 19 edition.

The Nov. 8 Election Day will be here before you know it but more and more people have opted to cast a ballot during the early voting period and why shouldn’t they?

It is convenient, lines are not long and you can do it at various times through the day during the three weeks that have been set aside for early voting.

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 considered 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, county, region and state.

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

Voting is a right and a privilege.

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.

Early voting runs Oct. 17 through Nov. 4 and will run 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and includes 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, and noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The Lowndes County Board of Elections is located at 2808 N. Oak St.