By the time the next edition of the Norwood News rolls in, droves of voters will have headed to schools, community centers and the like to cast their ballot for their next legislator this primary election cycle.

Or, if the cynical side prevails, they’ll stay home. Voting, it seems, has become blasé and an avoidable chore. Sadly, the Bronx, a borough that’s home to some 619,241 voters facing issues of income inequality, housing and health disparities, only saw 6 percent of its electorate go to the polls in 2015 (coincidentally, Norwood also had 6 percent of its residents go to the polls), according to New York City Board of Elections figures. The numbers are not as bad compared to Manhattan with just 4 percent in 2015. Taken together, New York City, which includes the Bronx, ranks one of the worst cities in New York State when it comes to voting.

With that, here’s an editorial that’s become a tradition: Go out and vote. Very few will remind you of its power.

This goes for registered Republicans and Democrats, though the latter appears to have far more influence in the Bronx. After all, Bronx Democrats outnumber Republicans by a margin of 10 to 1, making the September Primary a more closely watched election and a preview of just who will win November’s General Election to seal the deal.

It’s tough to pierce exactly what’s led fewer and fewer Bronx residents to the polls. It could be the lack of civic engagement classes taught in high schools that contextualizes the strife it took our union to fight for such a right, a complicated voting system, or the fact Election Day falls on a workday and folks are preoccupied.

Or it could mean that voters have given up on a process that’s still nonexistent in countries such as Iran, North Korea and Lybia where tyranny rules and speaking out of turn can get you thrown in jail or killed. This outbreak of indifference has certainly affected the Bronx. And with politicians in federal, state or city spheres doing little to tell you the power of voting (really, how many registration drives can you think of?), it seems the reminder to vote has been left to those who are driven by passion.

Voting gives you the right to exercise natural choice. That power represents the thousands of soldiers who’ve died defending that choice from forces that want to strip you of it. We’re reminded of that whenever ISIS succeeds in its latest terror bombing or uprisings from a populace demanding it. Even if you feel your candidate will lose, you still haven’t. At the end of the day, you haven’t relinquished your vote. It’s yours and no one can take that away from you. If you’re a parent, bring your kids to demonstrate why voting is a conscience decision that holds plenty of weight.

The Bronx seems to have crept away from its sad cesspool of corruption, with former Assemblyman Eric Stevenson holding the title of the last lawmaker to be carted off to jail in 2013 for official misconduct. Perhaps the Bronx has turned a page. But it can regress if the electorate is not cognizant of who they’re allowing to govern them.

Perhaps this year’s presidential races between Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican presidential contender Donald Trump will spark a new trend of voter participation, with hordes of voters at the ballot kiosk going forward. We’ll have to wait until next November to measure any kind of success.

If there’s one positive aspect that could come out of this race, it’s that.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.