An old Dutch story tells us the importance of doing what is necessary when duty demands.

The Netherlands is a low-lying country prone to flooding. A system of earth and stone embankments makes up the defenses that hold back the water.

The familiar tale speaks of a boy who noticed a trickle of water coming from between the rocks. Knowing a trickle could become a flood that could wash away the dike, the boy used his finger to stop the leak. He stayed there, not giving up, until others came to repair the damage.

It is the kind of parable frequently used to teach a lesson to children. It speaks of the needs of the many and the responsibility of everyone.

That brings us to today — Election Day.

This is one of those off-year elections that doesn’t have the heft of last year’s presidential race or next year’s blend of gubernatorial and midterm legislative contests. That makes it easy for people to dismiss. How important is it anyway? Why do you need to take time out of your Tuesday to go to your fire hall or church basement or middle school gymnasium?

Because elections are the embankments that hold back a multitude of floods.

This year is about municipal elections and judicial retention. Both are critically important.

We need the township supervisors and borough council members who put in time and are often all but anonymous. We need municipalities to keep the roads plowed and the streets paved and the police on the beat — and we need the conversations and arguments and debates that go into every decision.

We also need people on our courts, from the state Supreme bench down, who will carefully consider lawsuits and legal challenges. At a time when every election seems to end in front of judges, who those judges are could not be more important.

Every ballot is an opportunity to see the trickle of water and know there is a responsibility to respond.

Every vote is a chance to be the boy who saved his community by seeing what needed to be done and stepping forward to hold back the tide with a finger and a sense of duty.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Add your stone — your vote — to the wall that defends us all.

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