Election year under way

Published 10:04 am Wednesday, March 26, 2008

By Staff
I love election years. If you can get past the mudslinging of candidates - especially in this year's Democratic presidential primaries - there is so much opportunity for voters to choose who they want to lead their cities, counties, states and the nation.
As we approach our own local elections this year, The Brewton Standard will be taking an active role in educating voters about who is running, what they need to do to qualify to vote and when they need to show up at the polls.
We have several county offices on the ballot this year: tax assessor; tax collector; county commission districts 2 and 4; and county school board districts 1 and 5. Primary elections will be held on Tuesday, June 3, and run-off primary elections, if necessary, will be held on Tuesday July 15. The general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, the same day as the presidential election. Candidate qualifying for both the Republican and Democratic parties is under way.
We also have municipal elections this year, with the election date set for Aug. 26, and a runoff, if necessary, on Oct. 7. Mayor and council positions are up for election, but candidates will not qualify until July.
We want to hear from voters about the issues they believe are important in this year's races.
We will also try to provide you as much information as we can about the issues candidates believe are important.
Candidates are invited to submit an announcement of their candidacy, which will run inside the newspaper. In coming weeks we will also be interviewing candidates for front-page stories.
We invite anyone to write letters to the editor in support of candidates; however, we reserve the right to edit letters and to refuse to run letters if they are libelous. Letters will be published up to one week before any election.
I hope we won't see the kind of negative campaigning that tends to crop up in national elections. We have two wonderful communities and many people qualifying for office who are dedicated to making our county and our cities better places to live.
I encourage anyone who has not yet done so to register to vote so that you can have a voice in the future of our community.
Kerry Whipple Bean is publisher of The Brewton Standard. She can be reached at 251-867-4876 or by e-mail at kerry.bean@brewtonstandard.com.

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