1. These candidates work extremely hard. They knock doors and host events for months leading up to the primaries and the general election. I only attended two events and mostly talked to my own neighbors, so I obviously didn’t make it past the primaries. Many candidates on the ballot are hustling day in and out to meet community members and win their vote personally. I greatly admire them for doing this.

2. My new pet peeve is when one candidate tries to speak on behalf of their opponent’s beliefs. What incentive would someone have to portray their opponent accurately or positively? We need to stop believing what a candidate says about their opponent’s stance or belief, and start believing each candidate’s representation of themselves. Mis-representation is a major risk in these local elections.

3. There’s a fair amount of smear campaigning that happens at the local level. This surprised me. I think that because informal whisper networks are much stronger at a local level, smear campaigns (a.k.a. trying to make your opponent look bad) are more prevalent than I would have expected. It seems to even be an explicit strategy as rumor can sway a few votes in elections that have lower turnout, and it’s so hard to effectively refute it. I think we need to be very cautious when we hear negative portrayals of candidates, especially when it comes from their opponents’ campaign activities. Going directly to any candidate (their website, their cottage meeting or campaign events, etc.) brings a lot of immediate clarity.

4. Local races that are supposed to be non-partisan are not actually non-partisan this year. The Utah County Republican Party had candidates vie for their endorsement only if they signed a document called “the accountability pledge” requiring them to support effectively every line item on the local party platform. From my perspective this makes most candidates on the ballot overly bound to a specific local platform instead of their constituents and their specific needs. The only true free agents running on the ballot in November who aren’t beholden to this pledge are Jeff Whitlock, Rachel Whipple and Sam Blackburn.

The most important thing we can do in this election is to vote, and to listen to each candidate directly instead of through someone else’s representation (or misrepresentation) of their ideas, opinions and beliefs.

Sally Clayton is a Provo resident and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Government from Harvard University.