We’re a month out from Election Day on Nov. 5 — and ballots will be in our mailboxes in just a little more than two weeks.
That means The Observer is working on our coverage of 2024’s biggest local elections.
We’ll be mainly focused on the county’s two countywide elections, for county commissioner and sheriff. Our plan is to sit down with the four candidates in those two races for in-depth interviews about their qualifications for public office and their priorities should they win the election. It’s information that you’ll want to have before you vote, and our goal is to have those stories in print and online at lagrandeobserver.com at about the same time that ballots arrive in the mail.
We’re also working to gather information for you about local races in Union County, with an emphasis on contested races in Cove, Elgin, Island City and Union. We’re sending all those candidates questionnaires, with an eye toward posting their responses on our website. This should give voters a sense of the candidates and the issues that prompted them to run. (We’re also sending the questionnaires to candidates who are running unopposed, on the theory that voters should have the chance to know something about the people who will be filling local offices.)
If you’re a municipal candidate, you should be receiving the questionnaire the week of Oct. 6. Please fill it out as soon as possible and get it back to us. (And, by the way: Thanks for running.)
If you’re not registered to vote in the November election, there’s still time to register — and it’s easy to do that. You can start the registration process by clicking here. But you have to do it by the end of the day on Oct. 15.
In the meantime, here are some recent stories from the Observer that you might have missed. (And remember that not all of our stories are printed in the East Oregonian: Some appear only on the Observer’s website, lagrandeobserver.com.)
• Did you miss your chance to tour the new surgical center at Grande Ronde Hospital? Relax: Observer reporter Isabella Crowley has you covered with this photo-heavy inside look.
• A proposed ordinance intended to help reduce truancy at Union County schools is one big step closer to being approved.
• If you want a quick overview of the county and local races in Union County, Isabella has this story.
• Would Oregon farmers feel more at home in Idaho? Some farmers already have made the move, but other farmers think they’re better off staying in Oregon. That story originally appeared in our sister publication the Capital Press, but you can read it now on the Observer’s website.
This is a good time to remind you that subscribers to the Observer can access all of the EO Media Group’s other Eastern Oregon websites at no additional charge, including the East Oregonian, the Hermiston Herald, the Baker City Herald, the Wallowa County Chieftain and the Blue Mountain Eagle.
To access the EO Media Group’s other Eastern Oregon websites:
• Simply register your account on every site you wish to read with the same email address and password you currently use.
• Once you’ve registered, enter your username and password to enjoy the full range of content on that news site.
• You should not have to login again unless you log out, clear history or experience software updates.
• Save your password when prompted by your browser and if you are inadvertently logged out, your browser can fill in your login and password for you. (Only use this option on your personal digital devices.)
To view the latest e-Editions, be sure to register your account and sign in to www.eastoregonian.com.
Sign up for e-newsletters from each website by going to the “Email lists” link on your account dashboard for each site.
If you have questions or need assistance, please contact us at 800-781-3214 or email support@eomediagroup.com.
If you have comments, questions or story ideas for the Observer, send an email to editor@lagrandeobserver.com. It may take me a few days to get back to you, but I try to answer all the emails I receive.
If you have questions about the East Oregonian’s printed edition, or want to pass along a story idea, send an email to this address: editor@eastoregonian.com.
Finally, of course, thank you to all of our subscribers. We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.
Mike McInally is the associate editor of the La Grande Observer and the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain.
