While America struggles with the apparent terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon, insurgents in Iraq killed 37 people and wounded 140 more in a series of pre-election attacks.

Local officials say most victims died in car bombings in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Hilla, Falluja, Nasiriya. and Tikrit.  Two schools were blown up because they pegged to serve as polling places.  There were also reports of armed attacks.

The upcoming local elections are the first polls since the withdrawal of US troops in 2011, and are considered a test of Iraq’s democracy.  Even without the elections, the rate of civilian deaths from terrorism has been rising since the departure of the Americans.

Members of the Iraqi Army cast their ballots over the weekend so they’d be free to provide security for next Saturday, when the rest of the country votes.