What makes you think you’re so smart? Plus more questions about TNT election endorsements

You might need an extra shot of espresso to wade through the voters pamphlet and fill out the ballot that arrived in your mailbox last weekend. An extraordinary number of voters have a lot clamoring for their attention in this local election season, including an extraordinary number of candidates to sort out.

The winners will influence most every aspect of your life, from street projects to tax rates, from how your children will learn in the post-COVID world to the future of policing in the South Sound.

This summer, Pierce County elections officials keep adding to an all-time high of registered voters (more than 565,000) while managing an apparent record number of folks seeking public office (312).

You also may notice doorbellers emerging from their caves, well rested after 2020 campaigns mostly waged via Zoom and social media.

Meantime, you’re up against an Aug. 3 deadline to have your ballot postmarked and mailed, or until 8 p.m. that day to deposit it in one of 47 Pierce County dropbox locations.

Amid this electoral storm, The News Tribune aims to be a modest anchor of support.

While TNT reporters work hard to produce objective news stories throughout election season, the Editorial Board is pleased to size up the candidates and offer our subjective picks in nine key races.

Here’s a brief Q&A explainer of our endorsement process, starting with the most fundamental question:

* Why do you think you’re so smart that voters should care who you endorse?

Ah, yes, that. Thanks for not withholding what you really think.

The truth is, our endorsements are nothing more than the collective view of five reasonably well-informed people.

People who follow local news closely all year round. People who have direct access to candidates and public officials. But people who, like you, ultimately have to trust their instincts.

The best we can hope for is to supplement the voters pamphlet, candidate mailers, League of Women Voters forums and other information you have at your disposal.

Do we think we’re smart? Only smart enough to recognize the difference between the voice of God recorded on stone tablets and eventually used to underpin the Old Testament versus the opinions of five people recorded in newspaper and eventually used to wrap old fish.

* How transparent is your process, and how can voters get a glimpse of it?

We try to be as open as possible in sharing how we reached our conclusions. On the TNT website we also share video replays of our endorsement interviews — eat your heart out, Steven Spielberg — so you can see what questions we asked and how candidates answered.

Maintaining a reader feedback loop is also important. Think we crashed and burned on a particular endorsement? We welcome letters to the editor and will publish them all the way through the weekend before Election Day.

* How come you don’t endorse in every race on my ballot?

McClatchy requires all editorial boards in the company to conduct candidate interviews for every endorsement. We simply don’t have the bandwidth to do that for every local city, town and school, fire and parks district.

Therefore, we focus on Pierce County’s three largest cities (Tacoma, Lakewood and Puyallup), plus the Tacoma School Board (not on the ballot this year until November) and the Port of Tacoma Commission (the only race to appear on every ballot in the county).

* Why do you only endorse one candidate per race in the primary? Didn’t you used to recommend two candidates in this first stage, since two people will advance to the general election?

Indeed, we did. Thanks for noticing.

But endorsing two candidates was a relic of the old party primary days, when Democrats and Republicans would each advance their top vote-getting candidate to the November general election. That vanished under Washington’s Top Two Primary system, which is political party agnostic.

It was a strange practice in odd-year elections, anyway, since local offices are non-partisan.

So in 2019 we decided to stop affording ourselves the luxury of being indecisive in the primary election — a luxury that voters don’t enjoy. We now pick one horse in the primary and keep riding all the way through the general election —unless our preferred candidate is knocked out on Aug. 3 or a major plot twist is revealed.

* Who are the people making your endorsement decisions?

I’m proud to be part of a dedicated crew of five: Stephanie Pedersen, News Tribune president and editor; Matt Driscoll, local news columnist; Jim Walton, community representative and former Tacoma city manager; Pamela Transue, community representative during election season and president emeritus of Tacoma Community College; and myself, the TNT’s opinion editor since 2016.

After interviewing candidates and checking out their backgrounds, we don’t always make a recommendation with equal degrees of certitude. But I’m amazed how we’re always able to reach some form of consensus.

* When will you do endorsements in races that go straight to the Nov. 2 election?

Look for those starting in late September or early October. Our goal is to publish all endorsements by the time ballots land in mailboxes, roughly 2 1/2 weeks before Election Day.

Until then, plan your espresso shots accordingly and don’t forget to vote.

Reach the TNT’s opinion editor at matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com