There’s an annoying thing about producing a weekly newspaper that goes to the presses on Tuesday afternoons, and it occurs at the end of every election cycle.

The Chieftain is printed at 2 p.m. every Tuesday, even on Election Day. That’s six hours before the first election results are released. That means the Wednesday print edition the day after Election Day doesn’t include any election results. (The advent of our website, wallowa.com, has helped to solve that issue — and if you’re looking for election results, that’s where you’ll find them.)

That also means that this editorial was written before any election results were available. Nevertheless, indulge us in a handful of election-related thoughts.

We were gratified to see the voting turnout in Wallowa County take a swing upward over the weekend. Of course, we won’t know the final turnout until the last ballots trickle into the county election office a week after Election Day, but turnout as of the end of Monday in the county had risen to 35.8% — and Monday was the busiest day of the election thus far for returned ballots, with 451. The county turnout number was the third-best in the state as of Monday, behind only Wheeler and Gilliam counties — and it was much better than the statewide turnout, which was 19.6%. At this point, we’d guess that Wallowa County turnout will be better than 40%.

But still. As primary elections go, this was an important one, and it was likely to settle the race for Senate District 29, not to mention a judgeship in the 10th Judicial District, and one of the two races for seats on the county commission — all positions that can make a real difference in the daily lives of residents. And we couldn’t get more than half of voters to return a ballot?

Last May, in an off-year primary election, turnout in the county was more than 55%, driven in part by that Greater Idaho ballot measure. Now, county residents clearly have different opinions on Greater Idaho, but there’s no doubt it’s effective at getting people to return ballots — although our tongue-in-cheek suggestion that every election should include some sort of Greater Idaho measure leaves us exhausted.

In a state that has led the nation in making it easier for voters to exercise the essential building block of democracy, it’s distressing that more voters don’t do that.

Finally, a few words of thanks for candidates and other unsung election heroes.

No one is forced to run for office — and, certainly, no one gets rich from the salaries they draw as county commissioners or legislators. These also are jobs where you tend to be on the clock all the time — a constituent might buttonhole you at the grocery store or during a high school football game to bend your ear about something — so the actual pay per hour probably works out to be distressingly low.

But that’s not why these candidates run. Instead, they’re driven by a desire to serve, to give something back to their communities.

That’s why they subject themselves to the rigors of a campaign — the endless series of campaign forums, the meet-and-greet sessions in coffee shops, the door-to-door work to talk to voters. A candidate filing against an incumbent almost always faces an uphill battle, but contested races force those incumbents to defend their records, and that’s a good thing. (The fact that the 10th Judicial District featured a rare contested race against an incumbent judge is a good example — and also allowed voters a chance to learn more about the judiciary.)

In any event, none of this is easy on candidates. We all benefit from their decision to run. Regardless of Tuesday’s results — win, lose, advance to the November general election — we owe them our gratitude.

And speaking of gratitude: Here’s a round of applause for the workers on the front line of democracy — our election workers. As you know, their job hasn’t gotten any easier over the last few years as the nation has grown more politically polarized. That’s true in Wallowa County as well. But these are the people who work to ensure that our elections are safe and secure, and have performed that duty well election after election. Thanks.