For the last year, Iowans have been immersed in numerous political campaigns for Congress, the governor’s office, the state legislature and various county offices. A lot of people may feel like they have been bombarded by non-stop political ads.

With the primary election just days away, the campaigning will no doubt reach a fever pitch. In a democracy, that is to be expected. Every candidate for every office wants to get their message out and take a few jabs at their opponents.

As fed up as folks may get with all of this campaigning they may forget that they are lucky to live in a country where this kind of political activity is allowed.

But to be a well-informed citizen ready to vote in this environment requires a level of responsibility. Doing the work to learn the facts about candidates and their proposals is key to being a responsible citizen in a democracy.

Everyday, voters are greeted with all kinds of claims in print, on the airwaves and online. No one should fall into the trap of just sitting there and accepting every bit of information that campaigns and their allies are presenting.

Being a responsible citizen in a democracy requires thinking independently. We believe voters should consider every political ad by asking themselves questions such as “Is this true?” and “Does that make any sense at all?”

We also believe responsible voters should be questioning the origins of political ads. There are staggering sums of money being spent by all kinds of groups in elections nowadays. People ought to be asking themselves if the out-of-state political action committees paying for many of these ads actually have the best interests of Iowans at heart.

Arming themselves with facts is the only way for voters to counteract misinformation and just plain garbage being spread by campaigns.

Getting information from a variety of sources is the way to get those facts. We encourage voters to read and view political information from multiple sources. And they should especially look for sources, such as their local newspaper, that have a long track record of presenting unbiased facts.

While researching candidates may seem like a tough homework assignment that voters thought they were done with after graduation, it is necessary to keep our American experiment in democracy alive.

While the amount of information available seems overwhelming, it is possible to find out what is true and what makes sense with a bit of reading and thinking every day.

We encourage readers to be informed voters, heading to the polls equipped with facts rather than talking points fed to them by campaigns.