Here in Oregon, ballots for the Nov. 8 general election go out in the mail starting Wednesday, Oct. 19. As that happens to be the date of our next edition, you’ll find plenty of election stories in this week’s Blue Mountain Eagle.

Our aim is to help you make informed voting decisions by bringing you essential information about every contested race in Grant County, and to that end we’ve sent out questionnaires to all the candidates in those races. We were a bit surprised to find that not every candidate included an email address with their election filings, but one of the realities of life out here on the Western frontier is that reliable internet access has not yet penetrated every corner of Grant County (although Ortelco, Grant County CyberMill and others are working on that problem).

In some cases we were able to contact these candidates by phone or by tracking them down in person at places we knew they were going to be. When that didn’t work, we mailed questionnaires to their postal addresses.

As this editorial was being written, we had not yet received responses from all of the candidates. Our hope, of course, was that we would hear from them in time to make deadline for this edition. In every case, we have made our best effort to contact all the candidates in contested local races. In addition to asking for basic biographical information (age, occupation and political experience), we asked each candidate for mayor or city council to tell us, in 150 words or less, what they consider the top three issues facing their community and what they would do to address them.

We’ve also provided information about the three local measures appearing on the general election ballot: a proposal to ban psilocybin-related businesses in Prairie City, a similar measure for unincorporated portions of Grant County and the second coming of the $4 million pool bond, a measure that failed in the May primary after the final tally came out as a tie.

We will continue to accept letters to the editor on election-related topics as Election Day draws closer. Our last edition before the polls close will come out on Nov. 2. Please remember our deadline is no later than 5 p.m. Friday for publication the following Wednesday and the length limit is 350 words (although earlier and shorter are better).

We hope you find our coverage helpful as you decide how to mark your ballot. But however you decide, we hope you’ll vote — because democracy works best when everyone stands up to be counted.