What is the point of voting when you know the outcome of an election before it takes place? Many of us may be asking that question as we look toward the March 16 elections in which eight incumbent trustees in our three river communities are running for re-election to their village boards. All eight candidates are unopposed.

One likely reason they face no opposition is that partisan politics seemingly has had little to do with their current performance on their respective boards in Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow and Irvington. While their opinions on various issues may occasionally differ, all the trustees appear to be taking pragmatic stances in pursuing solutions to the problems each village faces.

In Irvington, the Democratic majority on the village board has worked smoothly with the two Republicans running to regain their seats. Among the three candidates running on the Tarrytown United and Democratic lines is a registered Republican. In Sleepy Hollow, among the three Democratic candidates is one who has run as a Republican in the past. Perhaps, as several of the candidates have put it, political labels don’t always mean a lot locally.

What a far cry this is from the national political scene where a minority party evidently is following a politically-oriented agenda heavily aimed at blocking the majority party’s legislative efforts to solve the country’s problems. An unwillingness to cooperate for the common good is politics at its roughest and ugliest.

Over the past few years, governmental progress at our local level has been driven by the spirit of cooperation. In the short run, that is good for the villages. In the long run, of course, political competition is essential for the democratic process. Political campaigns encourage discourse over the issues and allow the public’s voices to be heard, and the public’s will to be followed.

That gets us back to our leading question. Why vote in an uncontested election? Not only is your vote the core ingredient of a democracy, but it is a display of support and encouragement for the people on the ballot, the candidates who labor for you, who put in time and energy to preserve the standards and structures of our villages. Apathy should not rule in an uncontested election. In this sense, we endorse all the candidates. Vote on Tuesday, March 16!