Much can be — and has been — said of the importance of voting, especially in off-years where both major parties struggle to drive any kind of interest in their voters.

While the “main show” years, if you will — being the presidential election and the midterms halfway between those — are certainly more dramatic, the off-years tend to be more important on a local scale.

Off-year elections tend to see more councilmembers, township supervisors, school board members and other roles that have direct impact on our area.

Putting aside your partisan bias for a moment (just for a moment!), how much can you say that Governor Shapiro, President Trump or Senator Fetterman has done for you, personally?

While those roles are important, odds are far, far higher that your city council or township supervisors have made decisions that affect you, your loved ones or your neighbors.

Shapiro can go from town to town talking about this action or that; Fetterman can pontificate about a piece of legislation or something in committee; and we all know what Trump can do with some media attention.

But it is your local officials who maintain your roads, finance your emergency services, enact ordinances that affect your property, decide what books your children can access at school, enable local development and maintain the character of your community — and more.

And, of course, they control several tax rates.

We have said before — and will again — that local elections represent by far your greatest bang for your buck when it comes to your valuable time and attention span.

Don’t have time to sift through a master’s degree’s worth of quotes and misinformation? Understandable.

But that doesn’t mean that you should write off voting as a whole.

You know the track record of the elected officials in your area.

And, if you don’t, here’s a tip: if you aren’t aware of any problems, things are probably running pretty well.

As a general statement, government tends to be at its best the less you have to think about it. Barring times of extreme crisis, government should be something unobtrusive — something quiet and in the background, humming away while making your life better in some arcane fashion.

This isn’t to say that being uninformed is some kind of gold star. We cover as many local beats as we can manage, and report on what your elected officials are doing in their seats so that you, the voter, can make an informed choice when the time comes.

But if politics is at the forefront of your brain, it’s probably either your special interest, for a small portion of the population — or, more likely, something has gone wrong.

The only ones with the ability to fix that are the voters, and in that arena, the most powerful are those who historically sit out.

Think about it.

Like everything these days, both major parties — and all of their various attaches and contractors and suborganizations — have the data. They know on whose doors to knock, who to send obnoxious amounts of text messages to, and so forth.

But the silent majority — the people who typically sit out on Election Day for whatever reason — hold an enormous edge here because they are, essentially, stealth.

Most Democrats will vote Democrat. Most Republicans will vote Republican. There’s obviously a sizable cadre of independents, which both parties chase as premium voters.

But there are a lot of people who register for some candidate or another and then never vote again, or who just flat out never register at all.

The rate at which those people can be summoned determines many elections.

From census.gov, here’s some information about the 2024 election to consider.

Roughly 174 million people were registered to vote in 2024, of which roughly 154 million actually voted. That means 20 million people abstained. Keep that in mind.

The final vote counts saw Trump winning roughly 77 million votes to Kamala Harris’s roughly 75 million — a difference of 2 million.

Let’s turn back the clock. In 2020, here’s what those numbers looked like: Roughly 168 million people were registered to vote (six million fewer than in 2024), of which roughly 158 million voted (so four million more than in 2024) — an abstention of 10 million or so.

Trump gained about three million votes, while the Democratic candidate lost about six million votes, when comparing the two elections — a nine-point swing.

Remember those 20 million people who sat out 2024?

All those voters who turned out in 2020 won Joe Biden the election — but then vanished, or flipped, in 2024.

The reasons for that, of course, are the meat and potatoes of politics.

But the lesson is plainly evident: victory can be found in the margins.

Let’s be honest — if you’re reading this (especially if you’re still reading this), you’re probably a reliable voter already, making this definitionally preaching to the choir.

But we all know people who habitually sit out or only vote in rare circumstances.

And if you have a local race that you’re particularly keen on, a little motivation could go a long way.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. today.