EDITORIAL: What to know before you go vote

May 5—We are just over a week from the May 14 primary election, and early voting is already underway.

If you'd like to know more about who and what will appear on the ballot, we highly recommend that you take a look at the Voter's Guide (F section), which will give you a little insight into the candidates running for office, and sample ballots in today's paper. (Sample ballots will run again May 12.) Pay attention to the top of each ballot: You should receive the ballot for the political party with which you are registered, so make sure you are looking at the correct sample ballot. If you are registered as Independent, when you go to vote, you can choose which partisan ballot you'd like to fill out, but you can also choose to receive the nonpartisan-only ballot.

Even though this is the primary and most talked about races are the state and federal offices, remember the primary is also where we decide several nonpartisan local offices—such as board of education, magistrate and circuit court judge—as well as levies up for renewal.

You may have heard through the grapevine—or remember reading in this paper—about a 5-minute time limit on ballots. We'd like to reiterate that this is not a "time limit, " per se. It's the amount of inactive time that can lapse before the machine goes to sleep, like the screensaver on a computer.

To avoid that stress, we highly recommend looking over the sample ballots and the Voter's Guide so you have an idea of who and what you would like to vote for. You can even cut out the sample ballot, fill it out and take it into the booth with you, or write down your choices on a slip of paper. In particular, we suggest reading the levies before you go to vote.

There are five levies on the ballot. Several are lengthy and could take a while to read the first time you look at them. That's why concerns have been raised about the "5-minute " limit. The best way to avoid your voting machine timing out is to read the levies in advance and know which way you want to vote. But if your machine does go into "sleep mode, " so to speak, you can ask a poll worker for assistance.

When it comes to the levies (technically four levies and a bond), the options are pretty simple: "For the levy " or "Against the levy." The bond issue, however, may be a little bit confusing.

We (as have most people) have been calling the funding request for the Renaissance Academy a "levy, " but it's technically a "bond, " which is how it is characterized on the ballot. That one begins "Shall The Board of Education of the County of Monongalia incur debt and issue Bonds, in one or more series, in the amount of not more than " $142, 640, 000. This is the funding request to build the proposed STEM school, and you will see "The Renaissance Academy " further down. You can vote "yes, " which means you support issuing the bonds to build the school, or "no, " which means you are against using the bonds to build the school.

Elections like this one are the most direct say we get in how our government—national, state and local—is run. Your vote is your voice. Use it.