Added complexities brought changes in how we prepare endorsements

Orchestrating the Daily Herald's production and publication of election coverage and endorsements is complex, even under normal conditions. During a health pandemic, we have learned a new meaning for the term.

Yet, in spite of unexpected developments and the need to shift to new working environments and habits, we've sought to provide a level of understanding about the races that will help you vote confidently and knowledgeably.

For the November election, we're tracking some 200 candidates in about 80 contested federal, state and county races. At the outset, we were confronted with two common critical questions: How will we contact the candidates? And how will we interview them? But a third overriding concern also loomed large this year: How will we get information to voters in time to be useful?

Back in March when most of us thought COVID-19 would be an inconvenience of a couple of weeks or months, we still presumed the General Election would proceed normally. By early summer, it was clear there would be nothing normal about this election and we would have to adapt quickly to compress work that normally would stretch into the fall.

Knowing that early mail-in voting would be prevalent as many people strive to avoid gathering at polls, we began interviewing candidates and publishing endorsements with the aim of completing the process as close as possible to Sept. 24, the first day mail-in ballots could be sent to voters.

To help both candidates and us to be more efficient, we combined many interviews involving candidates for similar races that previously would have been conducted separately. Interestingly, the pandemic improved your direct access to many of these interviews. Because they had to be conducted by Zoom rather than in person, we had better capability to record most interviews. As a result, to supplement what you find in our reporting and the candidates' questionnaires, you can watch their interaction with each other and with our editorial board at www.dailyherald.com/video/.

For other resources, you'll find stories and questionnaires online at www.dailyherald.com, our endorsements at https://www.dailyherald.com/news/politics/election/endorsements/, and an especially useful Ballot Builder on our elections page, https://www.dailyherald.com/news/politics/election/.

We still have nearly a month before Election Day, and we know that many people already are making up their minds about whom to support. But many haven't, too, so our election coverage process is far from over. Our endorsement in the presidential race will appear soon, and our reporting on congressional, state and county races will build steadily through Nov. 3.

Whether you vote normally or the pandemic influenced your decision to submit your votes early, we hope you will use Daily Herald print stories and online resources as you make your choices. And, we're proud to have overcome a variety of unexpected complexities to help.