One of the annoying things about producing a weekly newspaper that goes to the presses on Tuesday afternoons comes on election days like the one coming up on this Tuesday, May 21:

Since the print edition of the paper rolls out hours before the 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline, the printed edition that you’ll get this Wednesday won’t have any election results in it — other than a teaser telling you that if you want to see election results, they’ll be on our website.

And they will: As soon as we start to see results from Tuesday’s election, we’ll put them up on our website, wallowa.com, with updated numbers throughout the evening in key races, a little bit of analysis and comments from as many candidates as we can track down. 

We’ll be focusing on four key races on our website: The five-candidate race for Position No. 1 on the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners might be too close to call on Tuesday night — and remember that election officials will count ballots that have been postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday as long as they arrive within seven days after the election. Two of the five commission candidates in that race will advance to the November election, and it’s possible that just a handful of votes might make the difference.

We’re likely to learn on Tuesday night whether incumbent Commissioner Susan Roberts has fended off a challenge from David Hembd in the Position No. 2 race.

Two other races we’ll be watching involve more than just Wallowa County: The heated race in the 10th Judicial District (which includes Wallowa and Union counties) between incumbent Judge Wes Williams and challenger Jared Boyd has been intriguing from the start. We’ll try to keep a running tally of votes from both counties as the night wears on. 

And the four-person Republican primary for Senate District 29 likely will decide who wins that race in November; the race does not have a Democratic candidate. But this is a tricky one as well: The district includes voters in 11 different Eastern Oregon counties. Again, we’ll try to keep a running total from all those counties as the night wears on, but this one also could be close.

After the election results become clear, we’ll take a deep breath and figure out what sort of election followup stories we’ll want to tackle for our May 29 edition.

Now, chances seem pretty good that you haven’t turned in your ballot just yet: As of last Friday, only about 28.8% of Wallowa County voters had returned their ballots. When you compare that to the number statewide (14.1%), that’s not bad — but still: Last year, in an off-year primary election, turnout was better than 55%. True, this year’s ballot doesn’t include a Greater Idaho ballot measure — but do we really need a Greater Idaho measure on every ballot to goose turnout?

Maybe it’s just that you’re one of those voters who waits until the last moment to vote. In that case, here are two pieces of advice: Be sure to use one of the county’s drop-off boxes because it’s a little late to entrust the mails with your ballot. You’ll find 24-hour drop-off boxes outside the Wallowa County Courthouse, 101 S. River St., Enterprise; outside Joseph City Hall, 201 N. Main St., Joseph; and outside Wallowa City Hall, 104 N. Pine St., Wallowa. 

And here’s the second piece of advice: If you’re looking for last-minute information about the candidates, you can find lots of it on our website, wallowa.com.  

Our website has profiles of all seven candidates in the county commission race — John Amond, David Brandt, Lisa Collier, Angelika Dietrich-Garoutte and Devin Patton in the Position 1 race and incumbent Susan Roberts and challenger David Hembd in the Position 2 race.

All four Republican candidates for Senate District 29 appeared at the April 28 election forum in Enterprise to make their pitches for voter support. Here’s my coverage of that portion of the event. And here’s a link to a story in which the four candidates answered questions from the EO Media Group.

As for the judicial race, La Grande Observer reporter Isabella Crowley and I teamed up for a pair of in-depth stories examining the biggest issues there. You can read the first part here. And you can read the second part by clicking here.

In the meantime, you might be thinking: If we don’t have any election stories for this Wednesday’s issue, what do we have?

Glad you asked. I snuck down on Thursday and Friday to the state track meet in Eugene and will have stories from that. Here’s a spoiler alert: I counted four state titles for county athletes, not including the three titles won by Enterprise’s Daisy Dickenson, who competed in the para-athlete events. I got a chance to briefly meet Dickenson, who was born without a left foot, and was impressed by the senior. You’ll read more about Dickenson in the weeks to come in the Chieftain, but you can read about her remarkable Friday at the state meet by clicking here. Other stories from the state meet will be posted on our website, probably by the time you read this. 

That’s not all. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley was in Enterprise on Saturday; we’ll see what he had to say. The Wallowa County commissioners have some big questions about the state’s proposed groundwater allocation rules. Both the county’s baseball and softball teams have qualified for postseason play. I think chances are good that we’ll be able to fit in that story about the new ambulance at Wallowa Memorial Hospital. And there’s more.

All of this is part of our continuing efforts to cover Wallowa County news to the best of our ability.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to register your subscription for digital access of the Chieftain. Call 541-963-3161 to talk to a member of our customer service staff, who will be happy to walk you through the process. It’s easy, takes just a few moments to set up and allows you to take advantage of our e-edition, app and website delivery along with your print subscription. (The online edition also features a big selection of puzzles available only to subscribers.)

Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank the Chieftain’s subscribers: It would be impossible for us to do this vital work without your support.

Mike McInally is the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain. You can email him at editor@wallowa.com or mmcinally@wallowa.com.