The next printed edition of the LaGrange Daily News will run on election day, which will be a critically important day for the county and state as a whole. On Tuesday, the city, county, state and nation will have eyes glued to election coverage, poring over results as they come in.

The state of Georgia has received a significant amount of nationwide attention related to the ongoing governor race. Oprah Winfrey has made campaign stops of behalf of Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams while both Donald Trump and Mike Pence have made campaign speeches on behalf of Republican candidate Brian Kemp.

Make no mistake, the nation is watching this race intently. However, there is a possibility a winner will not be declared on Tuesday.

Pollsters have declared the race as one of the closest in recent memory when concerning a governorship. There is a very real chance that Tuesday will not result in either Kemp or Abrams receiving the required 50 percent statewide vote to claim the victory, as independent candidate Ted Metz is projected to receive a few percentage points across the state.

The votes Metz will receive will, in all likelihood, be largely insignificant in relations to votes cast for either of the two other candidates, but could keep either Abrams or Kemp from receiving enough votes to cross the 50 percent threshold.

In the event neither candidate receives the required votes, a runoff will be held on Dec. 4.

While both candidates are in the midst of last-minute election jockeying, this becomes much less important if voters do not turn out at the polls, which has proven to be a problem in the past.

In the June run-off elections for both the Republican and Democratic parties, approximately 10 percent of the registered voters in Troup County showed up to the polls, as only 4,035 votes were cast in the entire county. This was relatively in line with state numbers and in line with recent averages for other state-wide runoffs in the last decade.

Numbers are expected to be much higher for the Tuesday elections, both locally and across the state.

Whatever candidate you feel will best represent our county and local area and carry the needs of Troup County, Georgia and the country in a positive direction, please vote. As a Troup County citizen, as a Georgian and as an American, the importance of this cornerstone of our democracy cannot be overstated.