Not exercising one’s right to vote is akin to not exercising one’s muscles. Each can become useless and nonproductive without exercise.

Exercising one’s muscles helps make for a better functioning body. Exercising one’s right to vote helps make for a better functioning democracy.

The deadline to register to vote in the May 8 primaries is 5 p.m. today. For Beaufort County residents eligible to vote but who have not yet registered, consider yourself being urged to do so at the Beaufort County Board of Elections, 1308 Highland Drive, Suite 104, and Washington.

Going to the polls and marking ballots allows voters to have a say in who represents them on a city council, on a board of county commissioners, in the statehouse, in Congress and who governs from the White House. Voting allows people to determine whether a local government will issue bonds to pay for new schools, road improvements or a new jail.

Just how important is voting? Here’s what some people have to say about going to the polls.

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.” — Lyndon B. Johnson.

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty.” — Noah Webster.

“I think if people value democracy, they had damn well better get out and exercise their right to vote while their vote still means something.” — Bob Weir.

People made sacrifices — on battlefields and in marches — for the right to vote. Choosing not to vote dishonors those sacrifices.