If you care about your school taxes, be sure to vote

Area school board meetings in recent months have attracted hundreds of people offering input into the work of running school districts.
Now, those same people -- if you are registered voters -- can do something with more lasting results than talk.
Today you can vote for candidates to serve on those school boards. And although this election is a primary in Pennsylvania, many school board seats and judges will be decided today.
Candidates for school boards and judges may cross-file in Pennyslvania, which means their names appear on both Republican and Democratic ballots. If a candidate is a top vote-getter on both lines, the name will appear on both sides of the general election ballot in November, virtually assuring election.
Under that practice, the five open seats on the Pottstown School Board could be decided today. Ten candidates are seeking election, but the five top vote-getters could be assured election if they win the top five spots on both ballots.
Eight candidates are seeking nominations for five open seats on the Perkiomen Valley School Board; 11 candidates are seeking nominations for five seats in the Boyertown Area School District; six candidates are vying for five seats on the Owen J. Roberts School Board, and six candidates are vying for five open seats on the Spring-Ford Area School Board.
District judge races in Pottstown and Amity-Oley could be decided today if one of two candidates for each spot wins both party lines.
And, in North Coventry, four Republicans are seeking nomination for two township supervisor spots. There are no Democrats running, so the two top Republican vote-getters will likely not face opposition in the fall.
Local elections -- primaries in particular -- typically draw low turnout. Yet these are the same elections that determine the decision-makers for the most important local matters in our communities.
Voters who go to the polls today will be choosing those who determine how school tax money is spent and who adjudicate the crimes and disputes that come before them.
If these issues are important enough to bring out hundreds of people to night meetings, they are important enough to draw voters to the polls.
Today’s primary is your chance to have a say in local government, local school boards, local courts. Don’t neglect to exercise that right and vote.
Polls open at 7 a.m.