Now’s the time to get involved in local government.

On Tuesday, candidates for local vacancies in November can begin circulating petitions to get their names on the ballot _ whether for the primaries in September or the Nov. 6 general election.

And this is an odd year. Not because a lot of strange things have been happening, but because in every odd year many town offices and county board seats are up for grabs.

Adding to the suspense this year are eight Oneonta Common Council vacancies, which are filled every four years.

So, this year, with hundreds of town offices to be filled, in addition to all 14 seats on the Otsego County Board of Representatives, county coroners and Oneonta alderman hopefuls, it will not be unusual to see people going door-to-door with petitions.

In the petition process, there is no limit to the number of people filing for the same office, as long as they get the required number of signatures, which is 5 percent of their party’s registered voters in the district.

For example, a Republican running for county office in Otsego County has to collect about 740 valid signatures from registered Republicans, while a Democrat would need about 530 signatures from Democrats.

For any office, however, the more candidates who file, the better. If there’s one thing from which local politics and leadership suffer, it’s apathy.

If six Republicans and four Democrats were to file for town supervisor in Meredith, for example, the resulting primary races would be great for town residents.

Imagine the issues that would be brought up during those primary battles.

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And that’s exactly why this election season is off to a good start. In Otsego County, at least, several newcomers have stepped forward already to declare their candidacies for county board or Common Council vacancies.

With the issues the Otsego board has been going through the past year, it’s no surprise that some fresh faces might surface.

And the Common Council holds elections every four years, which gives challengers and incumbents alike more of an opportunity to deal with strategies and issues.

Candidate petitions must be filed with county boards of election by July 19. Independent petitions may be signed starting July 10 and must be filed by Aug. 21.

There are a lot of spaces on the November ballot this year. Why not pick up a petition and run for office?