It seems like every two years, we hear from candidates and activists that the year’s election is the most important in our nation’s history.

It perhaps is the only thing on which both conservatives and progressives can agree anymore.

We certainly cannot argue that the 2022 election is important. Today, we advocate that every eligible resident of Chautauqua County vote.

But we also suspect that other elections will be of even greater importance.

In about a year, our region will be electing a host of local offices. We would argue that these local elections are extremely important. We would argue that their importance is shamefully misunderstand, especially by the punditry on cable TV and national news websites.

Our local officials have an enormous impact on our daily lives. They decide how much we pay in taxes, especially property taxes. They have authority over our municipal police and court and prison systems and are right in the thick of matters of public safety. The ordinances they craft steer the directions of neighborhoods and communities — what kind of jobs are available to us and our neighbors and families and what kind of opportunities we have to excel. They make the decisions that determine the quality of our schools, our parks, our streets and roads, the water we drink and how clean our neighborhoods are.

We hope everyone who can vote in the 2022 election.

But we also hope that in the coming months, voters learn about their local governments. We hope they vote in the Primary Election next spring and in the General Election in November 2023.

Because, while it certainly matters who our next governor is, and who one of our 100 senators in the next session of the U.S. Senate is, we believe it will matter even more who our school boards, county legislators, mayors, town supervisors, City Council and local town and village board members are.