Daily Herald opinion: For voters and for their own good, candidates should be accessible by email

In recent years, we at the Daily Herald have been pounding a steady drumbeat to draw attention for the need for better public access to political candidates through email, even as recently as just after Christmas Day.

With the holidays now behind us, that beat could never be sounded more loudly than now.

It is somewhat confounding to us that people vying for the chance to represent the public often shy from making a stronger direct connection, with voters they seek to represent. Creating a personal or campaign email address is a simple matter on almost any service’s platform, and it offers a candidate important, immediate communication from voters about the issues that concern them.

And it also helps us inform voters about those issues.

We have long advocated for legislation or policy reforms that require candidates to provide an email contact, yet, though some modest steps have been tried at the state level, little more has emerged than a too-little-used option on some candidates’ filing papers. Some county clerks, such as DuPage’s Jean Kaczmarek, have been cooperative in providing addresses to us, but in general, we have not been as successful getting contact information as we would like — and as voters deserve.

The issue is especially important now. With the April 1 election fast approaching, candidates for local municipal and school board offices should be putting their campaigns in high gear, and voters are eager to listen.

We want to help. We will carry news stories and occasional reports on various campaigns, and we will offer, in print and online, detailed candidate responses to specific questions about their qualifications and the issues they consider important. Providing this coverage for candidates we are able to contact will be demanding for us, but relatively straightforward — if we can contact them. If we cannot, the job is not just harder for us, it may be impossible for some candidates.

Our Editorial Board soon will begin interviewing candidates as a prelude to deciding whom to endorse in many local races. We will start publishing questionnaires in these contests and many more. Inevitably, we will hear from candidates after the fact that they want more consideration or fear that their opponents are getting favorable treatment.

Favoritism, however, is not the issue. Communication is. We cannot tell voters about you, our Editorial Board cannot evaluate your qualifications, if we cannot reach you.

So, let us beat this drum one more important time as loudly as we can. If you are running for local office in the April 1 election or heading the campaign for someone who is, send an email address where we can contact you to elections@dailyherald.com. Accessibility is certainly one of the primary demands of anyone who would aspire to serve in a government leadership role, especially at the local level.

Be accessible. Represent your campaign and your would-be constituents. And let us help you get your message to them.