Though last week’s primary election in the Mahoning Valley produced its fair share of winners and losers, perhaps the biggest defeat of all was socked to the health of participatory democracy.

In a word, voter turnout was disheartening.

How disheartening? In the Mahoning Valley, only about 1 in 4 eligible voters bothered to trek to the polls Tuesday — or during early voting for several weeks leading up to Election Day.

Voter turnout ranged from a slender 27% in Trumbull and Columbiana counties to an emaciated 23% in Mahoning County. (One bright spot emerged in Columbiana County, where 100% of registered Republicans cast ballots by last week, according to final unofficial results from that county’s elections board.)

Of course, even though we are disheartened by the overall low voter participation rate, we are not surprised. Boards of elections directors throughout the Valley had forecast anemic levels of voter participation weeks before the primary.

To be sure, many would-be voters likely had the wind taken out of their sails earlier this month when Joe Biden and Donald Trump captured the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, making Ohioans’ votes for our nation’s highest office relatively moot.

Nonetheless, if common sense ruled, one might reasonably expect as robust or even more robust participation for important races and critical tax issues in Valley voters’ own backyards.

Stephanie Penrose, director of the Trumbull County Board of Elections, hit the nail on the head when lamenting her embarrassingly low — but spot-on accurate — prediction of abysmal turnout in that county for Tuesday’s vote.

“The local races affect people’s everyday lives. But there doesn’t seem to be the interest for the local races,” she told this newspaper for a front-page primary-election preview story published March 17.

To be sure, the city, county and judgeship races that thousands of responsible residents in the Valley voted on Tuesday directly affect their pocketbooks in taxation and policy decisions, the immediate future course of growth or stagnation in their hometowns and in the demeanor and philosophies of the courtrooms into which they are most likely to be summoned.

Those who choose to go AWOL on Election Day forfeit their right to let their voice be heard. In so doing, they also forfeit their right to legitimately bemoan the governing structure that they allowed others to create for them.

The reasons citizens use to sit out Election Day run the gamut from apathy to laziness. One of the most oft-repeated rationalizations goes something like this: “My vote won’t make a difference.”

Such excuses lack substance. In several races on last week’s ballots, the margins were razor-thin. In Mahoning County, the Springfield Local Schools 1% income tax renewal passed by fewer than 20 votes. In Trumbull County, the Bristol Local School District has been thrown into fiscal hardship as renewal of an emergency property tax levy there failed by a paltry 40 votes. And in one Warren precinct, a liquor option was approved by a mere three votes.

Collectively, the 2024 primary stands as one in which the vast majority ceded authority to a handful of voters. In the Valley, it was akin to allowing one person in a group of four to decide what is best for the group while the other three sit idly and silently by.

The ongoing divorce of voters from the electoral process is particularly disheartening in light of efforts made in Ohio in recent years to make the civic duty more convenient and more accessible through expanded voter registration opportunities, liberalized early and absentee voting and other initiatives.

After all, voting today rarely requires more than becoming familiar with the candidates and issues before stepping out a half-hour earlier for work or enjoying a slightly later dinner. That’s a small inconvenience to endure in order to keep participatory democracy alive and well.