Election season is in full swing, again

Take a drive around Gillette and Campbell County and keep your eyes peeled. If you look closely enough, you might see a campaign sign. But look carefully, they can be pretty hard to spot. It’s not like they’re posted on every street corner and empty field.

Oh wait, they are. But that’s just what election season is all about, is seeing the beautiful landscape dotted with the names of people who want your vote. It seems like it was just yesterday that we got done with the primary election, and now we’re back at it again.

Early voting is underway in Campbell County. And for those who have already cast their ballots, we envy you. It must be nice to know how you’re voting in each of the races on the ballot. But for the rest of us, we have to do some research so we can be sure.

In the coming weeks we’ll be sending out questions to the candidates to learn where they stand on certain issues, so if you’re waiting on that information, please be patient. It will be coming soon.

Here in Campbell County, with the options to vote early, by mail or at the polls, the only excuse that people have to not vote is because they don’t feel like it. Unfortunately, there will be thousands of people here, and millions across the country, who will choose not to exercise this right.

Why might someone not feel like voting? Well, for some they might not think their vote counts. For others, they might not be impressed by the slate of candidates. Or maybe they just don’t trust the process.

I had the chance to watch a hand counting test trial last week. I won’t get into a lot of the details here, because I’m sure that between now and March it’ll be discussed at length.

One thing that hand counting advocates kept bringing up at that test trial was how they don’t believe the clerks are the ones to blame. Now, I understand from the clerks’ point of view why they might not take kindly to being told that they’re doing things wrong. To them, they feel like they’re being blamed.

I happen to think the Campbell County elections office is doing, and has done, a great job. They’re helpful whenever I have questions, and they don’t hide whenever I walk through the door. This has been the case for the last eight years.

There’s one lady in that office who is a legend to me because she kicked a billionaire off of Cam-plex property the day of one primary election because he was violating state law. I won’t say who this billionaire was, but he was running for governor in 2018 and he was too close to a polling place, and this elections employee told him to move it, which he did.

I make sure to bring up this story whenever I see this lady, much to her dismay, but I think it’s a cool story that bears repeating.

So whether you’re voting early or at the polls, be nice to the elections staff and the election judges. These are people who live in our community and want the same thing that you do — a good, clean election.