The N&O leads off today with a story about how some people don’t know what voting districts they live in for Wake school board elections in particular, but also for Raleigh City Council and Cary Town Council elections. This may because they’re getting mail and/or calls (including robocalls) from the wrong candidates. E.g., my wife and I live in School Board District 6, but until this year we were in District 5 — and sure enough, yesterday the phone rang with a robocall from Cynthia Matson, the Republican school board candidate in District 5. Sorry, Cynthia, whoever you’re paying to make these calls for you isn’t using the correct voter list.

If you’re in doubt about which school board district or council district you live in, you can look it up on the State Board of Elections website by clicking here.

When you fill in the blanks — your first and last name and your county — the page that comes up will have a pair of links. The first is to a list of your election districts. The second is to your sample ballot.

The Indy endorsed candidates in the Raleigh, Cary and Wake school board races. Click here for a handy clip-out list.

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This year In Raleigh, the ballot is pretty simple. Everything fits on one side.

Elections for Raleigh mayor and at-large Council seats are, of course, at-large — everyone in Raleigh votes in these. The mayor and council members serve for two-year terms, so all eight are elected every other year.

Everyone also votes on the two bond issues — $40 million for transportation, $16 million for affordable housing.

The only contested district races are in District A (North Raleigh) and District C (Southeast Raleigh). In Districts B, D and E the incumbent council members are running unopposed for re-election.

The districts were redrawn slightly this year to bring them in line with the 2010 Census.

Ditto in the case of elections for Wake school board. The nine districts were redrawn a bit this year. Voting this year is in five of them — District 3 (North Raleigh), District 4 (Southeast Raleigh), District 5 (West Raleigh and part of SW Wake), District 6 (Central Raleigh) and District 8 (SW Wake).

The other four districts were elected in ’09 for four-year terms.

Don’t be confused. Do vote. It’s important.