EDITORIAL: Helping Nevada voters reach their own conclusions

You may have heard there’s an election on the horizon. And that horizon is fast approaching.

Election Day, Nov. 3, remains eight weeks off, but this will be no ordinary balloting. As part of the state’s response to the coronavirus, Nevada will offer mail-in ballots to all registered voters to minimize crowding at polling places. That means voters will soon begin to receive ballots via the U.S. Postal Service. Those who decide to avail themselves of this option — early voting at polling places will also be available from Oct. 17 through Oct. 30 — could theoretically start returning ballots as early as six or seven weeks before the traditional polling takes place.

In recognition of this new reality, the Review-Journal this week will begin revealing its endorsements in contested races up and down the ballot. These will include the newspaper’s position on the five referendums appearing this cycle, our preferred candidate for president of the United States and our recommendations for the U.S. House, selected state legislative contests, the Clark County Commission, state and local education-related offices and Southern Nevada judicial seats.

Our recommendations will continue into the first few days of October.

Whenever possible, the process will have included interviews with the candidates involved. In judicial races, the newspaper has held numerous debates featuring candidates for the Nevada Supreme Court, the Nevada Court of Appeals, Clark County District Court and Family Court. These debates will be available on our website in the coming days and will also play a role in our endorsements, as will the paper’s 2019 Judging the Judges survey of local attorneys.

We hope this exercise is helpful, particularly for low-profile contests that often present challenges for even the most civic-minded and informed voter. The candidates at the top of the ticket garner the most attention with their ubiquitous ads and media coverage. But the reserved and limited campaigning that characterizes races for District Court or the Clark County School Board, for example, can make it difficult for voters to smartly compare and contrast the hopefuls — and that has only been exacerbated during this pandemic as candidates avoid local events and rallies. Yet these “down-ticket” races are often the most important to neighborhoods, schools and communities.

All politics is local, as they say.

The Review-Journal’s recommendations will be available online, of course, once they’ve appeared in print. And whether or not you agree with the paper’s selection in a given race, our goal is to at least offer voters tidbits of information that might help them reach their own conclusions. For those who want a convenient summary of our endorsements, we will also recap the selections from time to time in the Sunday Viewpoints section leading up to Nov. 3.