On the day of the election, a member of the Dallas County Board of Registrars mentioned an alarming number of people who did not know where to vote and when.

We can talk all we want about how voting is our right and our duty to the country, but if we don’t find out where to vote then how will we accomplish this?

As part of the interviews of voting turnout in the Selma-Dallas County area, we spoke to the Board of Registrars asking them about problems they saw and faced during Tuesday’s election.

“Not really any,” Board of Registrar member Lola Sewell said. “We just had to field dozens of phone calls of people asking where they were supposed to vote.”

Sewell had a good point — why would you call the day of the election to find out that information? The fact people scrambled at the last minute to find out where they were supposed to vote, makes us doubt that people were even prepared to vote on certain issues and amendments that were on Tuesday’s ballot.

We asked Sewell, “Don’t registered voters receive voting cards that specify where their polling location is?”

She said when someone registers to vote they are automatically sent that card, “But I think a lot of people just throw them away,” she said.

It saddens us that hundreds of dollars are spent to both print the cards and then mail them to each person who comes in and registers. Those are tax dollars being thrown in the trash, not to mention those cards cost the Board of Registrars time they could dedicate to other voting issues.

We want to ask anyone who voted to give themselves a pat on the back — you carried out your most basic democratic right no matter who you voted for. But we also remind everyone that registering to vote with plenty of time before an election, as well as learning about all of the aspects of where and when to vote are all part of a citizen’s duty to country as well.