Local elections may not garner that much attention, and what little fanfare there is evaporates quickly after the voting precincts are closed. When the races are over, most of us turn to the gazillion other things we have going on in our lives and tune out our democratic process until the next campaign season.

But the true magic of democracy is what happens after the election. After the thrill of the race comes the hard work of governing.

Let's face it, to the extent we pay attention to our system of government, we focus on the elections. Elections are competitive. They can be exciting. There is the drama of competition and the theater of political speeches. Elections decide winners and losers. It's our votes that make the difference.

It makes sense to focus our political attention on campaigns. After all, elections are when we as citizens play our most critical role in self-government. But while voting is important, it is not nearly enough. Like any system, our democracy will fail if we do not perform regular maintenance on it. The routine check-ups our government needs don't just come on Election Day.

In order for the system to work we must make time every day to keep up on our civic affairs.

Of course we can't all head to the state house or city hall and spend our entire day watching over our public officials. But we do need to keep abreast of their actions. We need to know what issues they are debating, what their plans for our community are, and how they intend on implementing them. We have an obligation to educate ourselves and form an opinion on the issues of the day.

Keeping up with government shouldn't be that difficult. But every year it gets harder. Fewer media outlets employ fewer reporters to cover routine government proceedings. And budget cuts to both state and local governments have resulted in fewer meetings being televised on public access channels.

Finding reliable information about what is happening might take a bit of work, but there are places to find out what is going on. Even better, we should look for a variety of information sources so we can compare what is being reported and what might be getting left out.

Already, campaigns for the next election are under way. Soon, what little bandwidth we devote to our political system will be swallowed by the next round of campaigns.

But before we get there, let's spend the next few months checking in with the elected officials who are doing this work now. Let's engage them, not while they are running for office, but while they are doing the quiet, often thankless work of shaping policy.

Democracy takes a bit of effort, and our obligation to make it happen just begins on Election Day.