2014 primary primer

This year’s primary election is in jeopardy of low voter turnout. This is commonly the case. For one, it’s not a presidential election year. Additionally, with California’s new “top-two primary,” under which the top-two vote-getters in statewide races head to the November general election, some may not feel a pull to the polls.

However, as our package of stories this week demonstrates, there are plenty of important local races on the line. Included are Chico’s two supervisorial districts, county assessor, superior court judge, county clerk and more. And don’t discount those statewide races either. The new top-two system makes party affiliation irrelevant. Voters who sit home next month may not like their options come November.

We’ve covered some of the contests in these pages, but we want to urge voters to go to the League of Women Voters’ website—www.smartvoter.org—for additional information, especially regarding the races we weren’t able to include. And get to the ballot booth on June 3. (For the CN&R’s endorsements, see Editorial, page 4.)