Tomorrow Mississippians across the state will be heading to the polls to vote for new local leaders. MPB's Alexis Ware reports

Candidates running for mayor in the capital city debated each other Friday in Jackson in an event moderated by the Clarion Ledger. During tomorrow's primary elections, voters across the state are choosing candidates to fill local offices like mayor and city council. 

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says municipal elections are critical because the elected officials make important local decisions. 

"In Mississippi  unfortunately we are not as good as we need to be on local races, which is just baffling to me because you're electing your mayor here and your alderman, and they're going to hire your police department, your fire department, pick up your garbage. I mean all of that comes out of these elections your jails I mean so many things are run. Really all politics are local and this is local politics." 

Hosemann says about 1.8 million Mississippians are registered voters, but only about a third actually vote. He says before polls open on Tuesday, people should learn more about the candidates in order to make an informed decision. 

"Well first they need to go talk to the candidates, and there's a lot of campaigning going on ads on the thing everybody's got a Facebook or some kind of web page. You can go look, but find out what they're going to do and how they are going to lead us the next four years and make an informed decision. That's the best thing we can do in Mississippi is have an informed decision about who we elect and who's going to work for us." 

The runoff election is May 16 and the general election is June 6.