Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

Election season is drawing to a close. As I write this, we only have two weeks until Election Day, and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to have a little relief from all the advertisements for political candidates and information on which candidates said what and how the opposition responded.

As promised a few weeks back, I have tried to keep tally of all of the political fliers our household has received in the mail each day. Typically, we have received one or two fliers a day, while on our busiest mail days, we received as many as four. In total, I counted over 30 fliers, though I found out from my husband as I was counting that sometimes he put the fliers directly into the recycling bin without even bringing them inside — so the count is probably closer to 40 or 45.

I don’t know if everyone has been getting fliers or if you’ve instead been inundated with phone calls or text messages. I have noticed an increase in calls from numbers I don’t recognize on my phone, but I haven’t received any text messages from any politicians or organizations. Others I know haven’t been as lucky.

No matter which way you have been hearing about the candidates — either through the candidates themselves, their parties or through others who are supporting or opposing them, they all sure have been vocal this year.

Will we be able to take a sigh of relief when Nov. 3 rolls around, or how long will it be after the election until there is some form of resolution?

In Minnesota, absentee ballots will be accepted up to seven days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. I would assume the majority of ballots would be turned in prior to Election Day, but we really never know with how things have been going this year.

For those of you who haven’t voted yet, we have an Election Guide coming out in the newspaper Oct. 28. We have published Q&As with the candidates and are covering various forums, and we hope you are taking time to educate yourself on what each stands for.

As far as opinion pieces around the election are concerned, we will only accept political-related columns and letters through Oct. 26, with the remaining letters and columns being printed in the Oct. 28 newspaper.

We will not have any political letters or columns in the Oct. 31 issue of the newspaper.

If you haven’t already voted, I encourage you to make sure to educate yourself on the candidates, and take time to know who you’re voting for instead of just guessing based on popularity or party.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.