­Interest high in General Election

The 2024 General Election is just 12 days away, and what an interesting election it is.

What was a generally uninspiring August Primary that produced a very low voter turnout has become a very interesting General due to the addition of the presidential race and two active school board races.

Of primary interest, of course, is the battle between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, a too-close-to-call contest that has split our nation right down the middle.

Wyoming, of course, will send the Equality State’s three electoral votes to Mr. Trump. It’s a sure thing. The ultimate red state, Wyoming is as far from a swing state as can be, but there are several swing states that will determine the next president in our electoral college system.

Stay tuned on November 5, but it’s all but guaranteed that it will take days to sort this one out. Our hope and prayer is that the losing side will accept the outcome, which largely did not happen in 2020 and remains a contentious issue to this day. The violence that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was abhorrent.

For us, the real interest lies in the local races. We’ve never seen the kind of interest in the Lovell School Board, where there are 10 candidates for four seats. All four incumbents are running, and there are six challengers, the most in our living memory – and this old editor has been here for 40 years.

Looking at the answers on questionnaires we sent to the candidates, we can see no obvious axes to grind among the six challengers. Rather, we see folks interested because they have kids in school and/or want to make a difference for the betterment of the school system, though there may also be a touch of “time for a change” when there are this many candidates and some very-long-serving members of the board of trustees.

It will be very interesting to see how this one comes out.

School District One also has races for three of the four school board seats on the ballot this year, and there are contested town council races in Lovell, Byron, Cowley and Frannie.

And yet going back clear before the primary, Bruce Jolley has been unopposed for his Big Horn County commissioner seat and Dalton Banks for his Wyoming House of Representatives seat.

Very odd. There are usually a slew of commission candidates.

We find the large number of school board and town council candidates this year to be fascinating, and we urge our readers to study the candidates via our voting guide that will be printed on October 31 and not just make the races a popularity contest.

Our system of government demands an informed electorate, and the large number of candidates is a good and healthy situation that requires careful study. It is unfortunate that some candidates have chosen to ignore our voting guide questionnaire, including U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Scott D. Morrow. Hageman also skipped the recent debate on Wyoming Public Television.

Rep. Hageman will win easily, but it is a disservice to her constituents to ignore chances to talk about policies and issues. 

We have always believed that the best government, the most important government and the government that can make the greatest impact on citizens’ lives is the government closest to the people – your school boards, town councils, hospital board and county commission, along with county officials.

So we urge our readers to study up and make informed decisions on November 5. In this way, our republic will function as it should.