Election Day has arrived.

While it may not be a presidential election year, municipal elections are just as, if not more, important.

The results of municipal elections affect one’s everyday life in many ways, including local taxes, land zoning, growth of area businesses and city planning decisions.

Oftentimes, these candidates are neighbors, friends or acquaintances. They are the ones to which the public has the most open access.

Local officials can affect the quality of children’s education, they can affect whether road infrastructure, such as traffic lights and speed bumps, are maintained, they make the rules as to where businesses or private citizens are allowed to build and they can help to ensure a town’s economic growth.

They are essentially the ones in charge of a town or county’s quality of living. State and national figures may make large-scale decisions, but the decisions passed down from local officials have the most impact on one’s daily life.

In light of these facts, today’s elections should be taken seriously, and while voter turnout rates have been low in past municipal elections, the same does not have to happen today.

It’s understandable that work schedules and kids’ sports practices can get in the way of making it to a polling location. But it’s unacceptable for one to eschew his or her voting privilege because of apathy.

Communities are the glue that holds the United States together, and each one of the more than 9,600 voters in Beaufort County can make a difference by contributing a ballot.

There are 10 polling locations in Beaufort County, so take the time to go fill out a ballot. These issues are important, and the public deserves to exercise its voice about them. And not only deserves to exercise its voice, but also owes it to one’s fellow community members.