Next Tuesday is election day in Kitsap County.

Registered voters throughout the county have been mailed ballots and those ballots are due back to the elections office or in the mail by the end of the day on Tuesday.

Voters in Bremerton are being asked to make decisions on who they want to represent them on the Bremerton city council and as mayor of Bremerton.

Voters in both of the Central Kitsap School District and the Bremerton School District have several seats on their school boards that are up for grabs. There’s a State Senate seat open that affects some voters in Bremerton. And there’s an open seat on the Silverdale Water District board of commissioners.

Since the primary election in August, there have been many public debates and candidate forums at which these candidates have appeared. Voters have had the opportunity to hear candidates speak and ask them questions.

Thanks to the hard work of the Kitsap County League of Women Voters, and others, voters have been able to learn about each candidate and their stands on important matters affecting local government and school boards.

For the most part, these campaigns have been friendly and not much mud has been slung.

As in any election season, there have been exceptions to that. Voters in Bremerton have heard about a candidate who is being investigated in relation to missing money from a PTA account.

And they’ve heard about another candidate who was banned from a national coffee store chain. Voters in the State Senate race have read about it being one of the most expensive campaigns in Kitsap County history.

Each resident in Central Kitsap and Bremerton who is marking a ballot needs to look at what they know and what they’ve learned about the candidates.

They need to think about the priorities the candidates have listed and see if those are the things that are important to them.

They need to do their research if they still have questions by checking candidates’ websites, or by giving the candidates a call.

And then they need to cast their votes, based on their best judgment of who will get the job done.

Only time will tell if those who are elected will serve us well. But voting, and being a responsible, well-educated voter, is the first step in that process.