As ballots are mailed and voters prepare to cast their vote, we want to remind readers about the Journal’s role during elections.

Every year, we endorse candidates running in the general election and every year, readers ask what our endorsements meant and if those opinions would change the nature of our publication’s content overall. We have also been asked in the past why the Journal endorses political candidates at all. The endorsements can be found in the editorial section of the Journal, on page 6 and 7, where we publish letters, guest columns, a weekly editorial and a cartoon.

Our 2017 endorsements can be found in the Oct. 18 edition of the Journal.

This section is clearly marked as the opinion section. When we endorse candidates we are stating our opinion on who we believe will best serve the community and why. We also offer criticism of candidates. We offer this endorsement as a way to encourage others to take a stand and have an opinion and hopefully vote for that candidate in the coming election. It is in no way a reflection of how the rest of the paper is prepared for publication.

We agree with a statement from the New York Times that an editorial writer has the luxury of spending his and her days exploring issues and talking to candidates thus making them one of the best-informed member of our community.

The reporter and editor at a paper are also trained to be trusted sources that look at all sides of an issue before making a call. Some papers have stopped endorsing because they fear the backlash of subscribers and advertising who may not share the same opinion.

We do not think that fear of losing money should sway what is published.

Our job is to provide information for our readers. The only way a democracy works is that have an informed society making decisions.

Read more about the candidates on www.sanjuanco.com/1221/Elections-Office.