We all know this year’s election is a big one, nationally.

But locally, we have one contested race for county commissioner, House District 58 and Senate District 6 races and a bunch of statewide ballot measures for voters to consider.

You’ll be getting your “blue book” in the mail soon, but those won’t really help you decide who to vote for at the ballot box in our local race for commissioner, which is a pretty important job.

And that’s part of the reason why we’ve decided to ask you, dear readers, what issues and questions YOU want the candidates to address.

What do you want our county commissioner candidates to talk about, specifically, as they compete for your vote?

We typically write profiles of candidates before elections, asking them about the issues they care about and why voters should pick them. We hear from readers with questions, but we’ve never created a dedicated method to collect questions on a larger scale.

This year, we’ve decided to solicit your questions through an online form, located at https://bit.ly/VoterQuestions2024.

Then, we’ll compile them into a document, a sort of local voters’ agenda, and use that to ask candidates questions about what our readers want to know. The idea is to create more of a voter-centric method for our coverage, instead of relying on the candidates to drive the discussions or ourselves. We’ve polled readers informally over the years, taking the temperature on concerns and talking with them, but we’d like to know more about what you want answered.

It’s an experiment, and we know we will learn from this first attempt at driving our election coverage with reader input. But we think it’s an experiment worth doing, to engage voters and candidates.

Maybe you’re not the type of person to show up at a candidate’s ice cream social, but you still have questions. Maybe you’ve read the candidates’ platforms and priorities on their websites, but you still want to know more. Feel free to submit your questions to us and we’ll try our best to incorporate them into our coverage.

You can also submit questions for the forum on Oct. 17, through the Ouray County Woman’s Club form at https:// bit.ly/2024Ourayelectionforum. Questions must be submitted before the event. Keep in mind the questions will be asked of all candidates.

If you want to submit a question on paper, you can do so at either the Ridgway or Ouray public libraries.

The Plaindealer has also agreed to co-sponsor the forum scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Ouray Community Center’s Massard Room, located at 320 Sixth Ave. This nonpartisan, informational event is hosted by the Ouray County Woman’s Club, which will also include the League of Women Voters of the Uncompahgre Valley this year. The goal is to encourage participation in this event, where candidates answer questions in a timed format, and to also provide information on the various initiatives you’ll encounter on your ballot.

This year’s ballot questions include topics ranging from the right to abortion to eligibility for parole, prohibiting trophy hunting to establishing qualifications and registration for veterinary professional associates.

It can be incredibly confusing to read the ballot language and decipher what these proposals mean, or how they could be used if they’re adopted. So we’re looking forward to the impartial analysis that will be presented by the League of Women Voters on these ballot initiatives at the forum on Oct. 17.

Ballots will go out the week of Oct. 11, so you have time to learn more, think about your choices and submit questions for the candidates.

In the meantime, if you need information on how to register to vote or you have questions about elections here in Ouray County, contact the Ouray County Elections Office at 970-325-4000 or via email at elections@ourayco.gov. To check your registration, visit govotecolorado. gov.

This editorial represents the views of the Plaindealer.