Time to vote, people! Tuesday is election day, or rather, the last day you can mail your ballots in to be counted -- and it's an important one with key decisions to narrow the field in many legislative races, not to mention a couple of local ballot measures.

Washington's Secretary of State Sam Reed has predicted the Aug. 7 primary turnout could be as high as 46 percent, which would be a record. By comparison, the average of the last six primaries was about 43 percent.

But voters seem slow to embrace their citizen duty this year. Election officials in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties are reporting a slower than expected pace of ballot returns.

As of Wednesday: King County elections department reported that about 12.4 percent of the 1,112,134 had been returned and signatures verified; Snohomish County only about 10.7 percent of the 402,937 ballots it mailed out had been returned; Pierce County reported 10.8 percent of its 419,795 ballots had arrived.

Michael Rooney, Pierce County elections manager says that pace is lagging the pace of two years ago when returns on the sixth day before the primary were at 15.3 percent. But he expects the pace to recover as election day nears.

Pierce County is projecting about 48 percent turnout in the primary, compared with 41 percent recorded in 2008. The expected higher participation, he said, is due in part to the addition of Washington's new 10th Congressional District.

Please vote.

To help, The Seattle Times editorial board has interviewed about 130 candidates running for offices in King and Snohomish counties and you can check out Times editorial board endorsements.

Also, The Times newsroom has put together a good guide to news coverage here.