Tuesday is primary election day in Minnesota, and there's nothing more important Minnesotans can do than to take a few minutes out of a beautiful summer day and cast their vote.

Think that's hyperbole? Consider this: You wake up on Wednesday morning to discover that Kurt Daudt, the speaker of the Minnesota House, lost his seat to a little-known Tea Party advocate and that a respected Minnesota Supreme Court justice, Natalie Hudson, is out, in favor of a general election between a troubled attorney who once had to be handcuffed in court while representing a client and one whose only reason for seeking the office is that he is unemployed.

Those are the extremes. In the middle are races where a winner will be chosen from among multiple candidates by mere hundreds of votes, so low is the turnout in some primaries. How low? In 2014, nine out of 10 eligible voters in Minnesota stayed home.

In such races, each voter who chooses to cast a ballot wields extraordinary power. Unfortunately, too often it translates into higher representation of the extremes in both political parties, or single-issue voters who are highly motivated but narrow in their focus.

Admittedly, the August primary is not a voter-friendly innovation in Minnesota. Summers are short enough here, with every balmy, blue-sky day a precious thing. August is for vacations, time for lazy cabin days, picnics, beaches, boat rides and park strolls.

The Star Tribune Editorial Board has been on record supporting a June primary, but the state Senate has rejected it, with legislators saying it would create a longer election season. Yet, somehow, more than 30 states manage to hold primaries between March and June, leaving their voters' summers free.

But a healthy democracy is a fragile thing. It functions best when ordinary people make whatever minor sacrifice is necessary — get their morning coffee to go, skip happy hour after work, push dinner back a bit or pass on the Tuesday night ballgame — in order to do their civic duty.

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While the Editorial Board does not endorse in every contested primary, it does make recommendations in key races where the primary might well determine the outcome, and only after examining the credentials and conducting an interview with each candidate. The board operates independently from the newsroom.

Here are our recommendations for primary day:

U.S. Congress

Second District, GOP

John Howe

Minnesota Supreme Court

Natalie Hudson

Minnesota Senate

DFL

District 59: Bobby Joe Champion

District 62: Jeff Hayden

GOP

District 32: Sean Nienow

Minnesota House

DFL

District 60B: Mohamud Noor

District 59A: Joe Mullery

District 65A: Rena Moran

GOP

District 31A: Kurt Daudt

Hennepin County Board

Debbie Goettel

Maureen Scallen Failor

To read the endorsements, go here. To find your polling place and ballot, go to pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/.