Attention!!! An election is coming up soon

Someone around here (OK, it might be me) often opines that except for the people directly involved, no one pays attention to local elections until about a week before they occur.

Now, one could make the argument that no one pays attention to local elections, period. Especially compared to a presidential vote, turnout is dismal in the votes for mayors, municipal, school and park board leaders. For instance, when all of these local seats were up for election two years ago, turnout in DuPage County was a whopping 20.62 percent. Contrast that with the presidential election of 2008, where 76.26 percent of DuPage residents cast ballots.

But, as we do every two years, we're here to see if we can't spark some interest in these closest-to-home elections. If not, well, at least we'll go down swinging.

We've really been in a full-scale information-gathering mode since candidate filing occurred at the bizarre time of the week before Christmas week. We did our best to secure contact information for the candidates who had filed, and in all contested races, we sent them questionnaires tailored for the offices they are seeking. In some cases, we tailored the forms with questions unique to that community. It was no mean feat. When the dust settled, we learned that we have 63 contested races in the portion of DuPage County where the Daily Herald circulates. Total number of candidates: 269, give or take a few who have officially or informally dropped out.

And may I say again, that while perhaps not the best thing for democracy and participatory government, it could have been much more massive because there are scores of uncontested races. For instance, every fire protection district board, except Carol Stream, has unopposed candidates. Same with many library districts. In fact, the Helen Plum Library board in Lombard, which has seven seats up, drew only five candidates. So perhaps Mickey Mouse, a popular write-in choice, has a shot there.

Anyway, the questionnaires are in, and with some exceptions, most candidates were diligent about completing them thoroughly and on time. But I never cease to marvel at the handful of people who apparently wish to hold public office but conduct their campaigns in secrecy. They don't respond to our e-mails and phone calls, don't show up at candidate forums and aren't even known to their opponents.

I won't make a 100 percent ironclad guarantee that perhaps we didn't make any mistakes; many e-mail addresses were copied, cut and pasted and otherwise passed along in the process of contacting the candidates. In such cases we've tried to give candidates the benefit of the doubt, and as I write this, we are still inputting late-breaking candidate responses. As we complete the process, the plan is for the complete list of answers to go “live” on our website sometime next week. (Truth of the matter is, if you really, really, really want to get a look at a candidate's answers, you could plug his/her name into our website search engine. You might find some but the profiles are still under construction so they may be incomplete.)

A few weeks ago, we started in-person interviews with all candidates for mayor, city council, village board and school board. In those sessions, a Daily Herald editor or supervisor and a reporter meet with the candidates in a particular race to ask their views on the burning issues of the day. The editor/supervisor will use that session, plus the candidate questionnaires and other elements, to form a recommendation to our editorial board on whom the newspaper should endorse.

The sessions, which are held on the record, often produce news stories. One quick example: Marco Santana's piece in Thursday's paper on a mayor candidate's doubt the auction of the long-shuttered Hubble Middle School in Wheaton will draw any bidders with its $10 million opening bid.

Have we forgotten anything? On April 5, it's up to you.