How the Daily Journal will cover this election

So, how do we arrive at our viewpoint? In years past, we would interview the candidates and write one story encompassing all the issues, then take the information gathered for that story and base our editorial endorsement on it.

Because of the number of candidates for the June primary, we will be doing sort of a hybrid. We will still conduct editorial endorsement interviews and write both a story and separate recommendation, but we will also be writing a series of stories on the candidates and issues of the race as well. There is lots to consider in many of these races, and we will be getting started before the filing deadline in March. So start looking for that soon.

In the meantime, our columnists have been marking some of the initial items of interest in the race, which includes money raised. They have also been highlighting what they personally find interesting and some of that has included personal background and stories under their format, which is offering readers their opinion.

There are many races to write about. Locally, we have U.S. representatives in new districts 15 and 16; members of the Assembly in new district 21 and 23; two members of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in districts 2 and 3; chief elections officer and assessor-county clerk-recorder; controller; coroner; district attorney; sheriff; treasurer-tax collector; and county superintendent of schools. All of the above races have a primary June 7, and state and federal offices will have a top-two primary, meaning the top-two vote-getters in each race will face off in the general election in November. For county races, if one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in June, they win and avoid a runoff in November. If there is no majority winner, the top two face off in a runoff in November. So a race with no challenger ends in June, along with any race with just two candidates as one is sure to get more than 50% of the vote.

Voters will start receiving their ballot in May and in-person voting begins as soon as May 9. That will be here before you know it.

After the primary, we will lift the opinion page blackout until the filing deadline in August. At that point, those who make it through to the general will join a number of local races including school board and city councils. There will also be special elections for any measures. There will be more things to vote about in November as most school districts and cities moved their elections to even years to maximize voter turnout. We will likely use our traditional format for all those races, and launch our editorial endorsement interviews soon after the filing deadline and run stories and recommendations based on those interviews soon after with a goal of completing them before voting begins.

As I wrote in the beginning, there is a lot of interest in this election and tensions are already high. We aim to keep a steady aim on our goal, and that is simply to present a variety of viewpoints in an organized fashion. We will also write stories during the campaign we find of interest while also exploring the candidates and issues in depth to present straightforward information to you, our readers.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.