Voting the big story for 2016

North Idaho’s Top 10 stories of 2015, selected by the editorial staff at The Press, are in the books.

This time next year, what will you be talking about as the top local stories of 2016?

If long-range forecasts hold true, more ferocious fires are in our future. More leading citizens are likely to die. But from the limited perspective of early January looking forward, politics will almost certainly be among the most important, most talked-about topics of 2016.

Of course, that’s largely because everybody seems to wake up and speak out when a new president is about to be crowned. We submit that of greater local importance and impact, however, will be the selection this year of the Idaho Legislature, particularly those who will represent Kootenai County.

In the weeks and months ahead, The Press intends to do more to inform you about the local candidates than it has before. Why? Because with higher turnout assured — thank you, Hillary and Donald — citizens who may not be as attuned to political fact-checking will have a better background from which to cast informed votes.

Idaho’s Republican primary is, in our view, structured to reduce participation to only the most hardcore party members. The preponderance of Independents voting in previous election cycles led to more moderate candidates being chosen than party officials approved.

While the newspaper can’t change the primary system, it can work harder to better inform more citizens. The Press will produce a special political insert before the May primary that will focus more on who the candidates are and what they’ve done than simply repeating their stances on two or three hot button issues. We’ll also expand this special publication to include all candidates — not just those in contested races — who will appear on primary ballots.

For the November general election, another special political section will be produced and timed to be in readers’ hands when early, absentee voting begins. We’ll print plenty of extra copies so they’ll be available to readers who vote traditionally and may have misplaced their original copy in the meantime.

While letters to the editor endorsing candidates will continue to be published, The Press has arranged for a series of op-ed pieces to be penned by knowledgeable local professionals analyzing the incumbents. These will include background on important state and local issues and show where your elected officials stood on them in the previous session.

Strong turnout of voters well-armed with accurate information about the candidates will lead to the best representation possible in our Legislature. That, we hope, will be one of the good news stories of 2016.