For Mississippians today is an important day. It doesn’t have anything to do with football or the river, catfish or even any of the staples of Southern cooking that makes Mississippi famous.

Today is important because of an important, if sometimes boring, mundane task — voting.

Mississippi voters head to the polls today to select party primary candidates for a U.S. Senate seat as well as our district’s U.S. House of Representative seat.

This type of primary election often lacks the drama of a presidential election where the stakes or national. And today’s election likely lacks the intrigue that a local election brings.

But make no mistake, people in our area have exactly three people who represent them in Washington, D.C., and two of those will be on today’s ballot.

The race is important and it’s not too late to vote. If you’re not sure which candidate you support, take a few minutes to do some research and become educated before simply casting a vote for an R or a D.

Elections matter and elections that tend to be sleeper elections matter even more.

Please remember to vote today and encourage those around you to do the same.

Our country works best when we all choose to use the freedoms and enjoy the privileges we have, among the most important of those is the privilege to vote for our own leaders.