No idea who to vote for in Tri-Cities elections? Tri-City Herald videos can help

This year’s local election is probably the most important the community has had in many years, and the results will determine the future of the Tri-Cities in a way few other elections have.

That was the assessment made by Kennewick City Councilman John Trumbo in a recent interview with the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board. And after two and a half weeks of meetings with city council and school board candidates, we agree with him.

There is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction running through many of the campaigns, and emotion is driving some people to run for office who would not have dreamed of doing so in years past.

How it all plays out will be determined Nov. 2.

With so much at stake, it is critical voters do their homework before filling out their ballots.

Unfortunately, though, local races are often dismissed by citizens who don’t pay attention to the inner workings of their local governments. When the ballots arrive in their mailboxes, they have no idea who to vote for so they don’t bother at all.

To help with that dilemma, the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board has been meeting with candidates and will offer our recommendations in the coming weeks.

But most exciting of all is that along with those recommendations, we will publish the full video recording of our meetings with the candidates.

If you don’t like our interpretation, you can watch the meeting for yourself and make up your own mind.

We are thrilled that we can offer this extra resource to Tri-City voters.

In prior elections, before COVID changed how we interacted with others, we would meet with candidates in person in a Herald conference room behind closed doors. This year, for safety reasons, we conducted our interviews virtually.

The benefit is that now citizens have a front-row seat to our edit board interviews.

The videos will be a terrific opportunity for voters to hear candidates explain their priorities, discuss their concerns, address uncomfortable issues and answer tough questions asked by members of our Tri-City Editorial Board.

Our format is different from other scripted question-and-answer sessions offered by other organizations. In our sessions the vibe is more conversational and therefore more revealing.

In some of our meetings the contrast between the candidates has been obvious. In others, the candidates actually agree with each other more than you might expect.

While all the interviews were under control, some were hot and contentious with barbs flying back and forth. Others were polite and pleasant.

We will start releasing them close to Oct. 13 when ballots are mailed.

If you know who you want to vote for, that’s great. But if you don’t and you want to watch our recorded sessions, be patient. They will all appear online before ballots are due in November.

In addition to the Herald videos, the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties will be airing their candidate debates beginning Oct. 11. The schedule can be found on their website.

And while we encourage voters to research candidates from a variety of sources, we hope they include our recommendations in the mix.

Weighing in on political races is a long tradition at the Tri-City Herald — as it is for newspapers all around the country.

But every year we get complaints from people who don’t understand the process, and think journalists have no business recommending one candidate over another.

It is true that journalists who work on the news side must remain objective.

But the opinion section of the newspaper is different. It’s where we routinely comment on issues of the day, and it’s the place where you will find political cartoons and opinions from local, regional and national writers.

The point of the opinion page is to promote a community conversation, and in the coming weeks we hope our election recommendations and videos launch this important dialogue.

All elections matter, but this year in the Tri-Cities it is absolutely critical citizens do their research and vote. The direction of the community depends on it.

This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 4:00 AM.