The elections closest to home

Terry Ward, Publisher

We spend an extraordinary amount of time talking about elections that happen thousands of miles away.

Presidential campaigns dominate television, social media and conversations for months, sometimes years. We follow polls from other states. We debate candidates we may never meet. We watch every controversy and analyze every development.

Then a local election arrives.

And many of us don't vote.

The numbers tell the story.

In Chelan County, voter turnout for the August 2025 primary was 31.35%. In 2023, it was just 29.51%. Turnout was higher during the 2024 presidential election cycle, when 44.17% of voters participated in the August primary, but still far below the 79.58% who voted in that November's general election.

The pattern is difficult to ignore.

The closer an election feels to Washington, D.C., the more attention we tend to give it.

Yet some of the decisions that affect our daily lives most directly are made much closer to home.

Local and state elected officials influence the roads we drive, the schools our children attend, how communities grow, how public safety is funded, how land is used, how infrastructure is maintained and how our tax dollars are spent.

These decisions are not abstract.

We see them every day.

They determine whether a road gets repaired.

Whether housing can be built.

How emergency services are funded.

How communities prepare for growth.

How public spaces are maintained.

How schools respond to changing enrollment and community needs.

Federal elections certainly matter. The decisions made in Washington, D.C., affect all of us, and participation in those elections is an important responsibility.

But democracy does not begin and end with the presidency.

It also happens in county offices, city halls, school districts, fire districts and legislative districts.

It happens much closer to our front doors.

And in many of those elections, relatively small numbers of voters can determine who advances, who serves and which ideas move forward.

That is especially important in a primary election.

Primaries are easy to overlook. They arrive in the middle of summer, when families are traveling, people are spending time outdoors and elections may be far from the top of anyone's mind.

But the primary determines the choices voters will have in November.

If we wait until the general election to start paying attention, some of those choices have already been made.

The Aug. 4 primary gives us another opportunity to participate.

Not simply to fill in circles on a ballot, but to do something that should come before voting: learn.

Read about the candidates.

Understand the offices they are seeking.

Look beyond campaign slogans and social media posts.

Ask what experience they bring, what priorities they have and how they approach the responsibilities of the office.

Read local news coverage. Attend candidate forums when possible. Read the voters' pamphlet. Listen carefully to what candidates say, and just as importantly, how they say it.

Then make your own decision.

That is what informed participation looks like.

At our newspapers, one of our most important responsibilities is helping readers understand the communities they live in. That includes covering local government, public agencies, elections and the people seeking positions of public trust.

We do that because local decisions matter.

But journalism can provide information. It cannot provide participation.

That part belongs to each of us.

It is easy to believe one vote doesn't matter, particularly in a national election where millions of ballots are cast.

Local elections offer a different perspective.

Margins can be small. A handful of votes can matter. A relatively small portion of the community can end up making decisions that affect everyone simply because everyone else chose not to participate.

If we care about the direction of our communities, voting is one of the simplest ways to have a voice in that direction.

Your ballot may already be sitting on the kitchen counter.

Don't let it become another piece of mail you intend to get to later.

Learn about the choices in front of you.

Make your decision.

And vote.

Because some of the elections that receive the least attention may have the greatest influence on the place you call home.

Terry Ward is the CEO of Ward Media and the publisher of NCW News, Cashmere Valley Record, Lake Chelan Mirror, The Good Life, The Leavenworth Echo, Quad City Herald, and the Wenatchee Business Journal. He can be reached at terry@ward.media.