I keep hearing questions about the upcoming elections, so here we go again.

The party first primary elections will be Tuesday August 4. No surprises there.

A voter can choose whether he or she wants to vote Democrat or Republican. We don’t register by parties in Mississippi. You can vote Democrat one year and Republican the next.

But! If you vote as a Republican in the First Primary Election on August 4, you will not be able to vote in the Democratic Primary Runoff Election three weeks later.

Further, if you vote as a Republican in the First Primary Election on August you will find no contested local races on the Republican ballot. You will cast away your influence in determining who takes care of our county business — from justice court judge, to supervisors, to circuit clerk to sheriff to state representative to senator — all those races are contested by candidates who are running as Democrats. Those are the grass roots offices that take care of our local government. Your vote will carry far more influence in a supervisor’s or justice court district or a county race than when it is diluted in a statewide race.

Then on November 3, you can vote for Democrats, Republicans, independents and anyone else of any ilk on the General Election ballot.