Today, the good people of Wilkinson County may finally get to cast votes and know that the ballots will be handled with some integrity.

After 10 months of waiting, allegations, lawsuits and legal wrangling, Wilkinson County will have a “do over” of the 2007 Democratic primary today.

Allegations of voter fraud, mishandling of ballots and generally sketchy — if not criminal — behavior abounded around the original election.

Ultimately, so much shadiness surrounded the original primary — and the party’s vote to throw out paper ballots that were allegedly mishandled — a specially-appointed judge decided an entirely new election was needed.

This time, hopefully, the eyes of court-appointed special advocates will discourage any shenanigans.

We are glad voters finally have a chance to choose their candidates, but we’re disappointed that the matter occurred in the first place.

We urge investigators to rigorously pursue allegations of wrongdoing and prosecute any found viable enough to stick.

Perhaps the only thing worse than the mess Wilkinson County finds itself in at the moment is that such cases often lead to increased voter apathy.

When crooks push honest voters to toss up their hands with disgust and stop voting, the crooks win. And we should never sit idle and let that happen.