Make your voice be heard

Nine more days.

If you want your ballot to count, that’s how long you have left to get it turned in.

About 30,000 voters across Spokane County have already done so, according to the Elections Office. But that’s barely one in 10 of the county’s registered voters.

On the following pages you’ll find brief summaries of the ballot measures and contested races in Spokane County, a list intended to help jog your memory about candidates and issues. Full versions of election-related news articles published in The Spokesman-Review throughout this campaign season, along with other coverage and useful information, is available at spokesmanreview.com.

This is what many call an off-year election. No congressional or legislative races are on the line. Just a long list of distinctly local offices up for grabs – everything from city and town councils to school boards and fire district commissions. By state law, all are nonpartisan, which means none of the candidates actively campaign as Democrat or Republican.

But it’s the kind of front-line government policy-setting that has the most immediate impact on people’s everyday lives.

Trash collection. Road repairs. Building and development rules.

Voters in Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, are choosing a mayor. Control of the City Council also is up for grabs.

Politics in the fledgling Spokane Valley are heating up, too. A political newcomer and a write-in candidate are shaking up the young city’s council races and keeping everyone guessing.

And on the West Plains the number of election season matchups at nearly all levels serves, yet again, as testament to the vibrancy of small-town life.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are pouring into the races, with the Spokane mayoral contest alone eclipsing $300,000 in contributions and spending so far.

But for all the special-interest fundraising, it still comes down to the individual voters who mark their ballots and get them turned in.