Most of us aren’t programmed to think about voting in the spring. May is for the deceptively named primary elections. Yes, we tend to think of them as the semifinals rather than the championship game.

This year, there’s a primary election on May 8, and we urge you to consider this one every bit as important as the one coming up in the fall. Please vote.

The primary ballot this year includes an issue of profound importance: Amendment One, the proposed constitutional amendment that would stipulate marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal domestic union in North Carolina.

It’s a shameful proposal, nakedly discriminatory, and we hope voters across the state will hand it the decisive defeat it deserves. Constitutional amendments should be employed to expand the scope of civil rights, never to contract them.

In addition to the amendment referendum, two seats in District 1 (which includes Chapel Hill and Carrboro) on the Orange County Board of Commissioners are up for grabs. There’s also a District 2 seat and an at-large one up for vote, along with state and legislative races.

It bears repeating: These local races have a much more direct effect on voters’ lives than the presidential ones that consume most of the electoral oxygen every four years.

You don’t have to wait until May 8 to vote. The early voting period opened Thursday and continues until May 5. Early voting sites are Carrboro Town Hall, the Seymour Senior Center on Homestead Road, the Ram’s Head Dining Hall on the UNC campus, Mount Zion AME Church in Cedar Grove and the Orange County Board of Elections office in Hillsborough.

If you’re a registered voter, you can vote at any of those sites, no matter what precinct you live in. And if you’re not a registered voter, you can register and vote all in the same trip at any early voting site.

It’s extraordinarily convenient and easy. We encourage you to vote early rather than wait for Election Day. Who knows what May 8 may bring?

So go ahead and cast your vote in advance. You’ll feel good about it.