Now that the focus is back on Tuesday’s elections instead of friendly lawsuits and interventions, the citizens of Bogalusa and Washington Parish need to get out and vote.

Citizens need to vote for the candidate who best suits their needs and ideals. The public should be intelligent enough to select the candidates who have the best ideas for moving this city, parish, state and country forward in a positive direction.

If we don’t vote, then nothing is gained by complaining about it after the fact. Your particular candidate might not win their race, but at least you had a say in the election. And that’s all anybody can do. In other words, if you don’t vote, don’t complain.

We’ll be voting Tuesday on everything from a state senator to constables and everything in between. And there are the 14 amendments to be voted on that do take some thought on how to proceed. If you want to get a better look at the races on the ballot, look for the sample ballot that was published in the Friday, Oct. 31, edition of The Daily News.

We think it was unfortunate that some of our citizens qualified to run in districts in which they did not live, which ultimately led to the suit District Judge William J. Knight dismissed on Thursday in Franklinton. As the judge noted, somebody dropped the ball when it came to qualifying for the Bogalusa City Council. We wholeheartedly agree with the judge on that issue.

The only thing that can be done now is chalk it up to experience and learn from it. After all, four years from now, only the candidates that made it to their desired positions — and their record — is all that will matter.

Good luck to all the candidates in each race. There will be winners and losers. But hopefully, we as citizens will all be winners after Tuesday’s elections.