Guy Parsons via Cagle Cartoons, caglecartoons.com

We’re often told that voting is our responsibility, our duty as citizens. We talk less often about voting as a privilege.

Filling out a ballot is a gesture of self-determination: We decide who shapes our communities, who leads our nation. It’s the mechanism that has kept America going for more than two centuries. As insignificant as a single vote may seem, our forebears fought and died to give it to us. Voting is democracy.

Today, we’re voting on races at the local, county and state levels up to the highest office in the land, as well as a state constitutional amendment. Every one of these contests is a chance to select who or what best matches your values and your vision of community. The specific contests on your ballot are determined by where you live; check your county board of elections' website to see a sample ballot. And find candidate profiles and roundups of local races in the Times Union’s voter guide at timesunion.com/voterguide.

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