Election season is heating up, and around every corner, someone is trying to influence voters. Groups want you to support their political candidate, or at least vote against his or her opponent. Others attempt to encourage voters to embrace a certain platform or policy, usually under the thinly-veiled guise of being a “non-partisan” group out to educate the voting public.

Local network television has become almost unwatchable this time of year for the mere fact that every commercial break is completely saturated with political ads, many of them repeating over and over again. Most of the political advertisements made for TV are negative, mud-slinging ads designed to expose the opposition and praise the candidate whose committee is spending all the big bucks on the ads. The networks have to love it, because these negative ads typically drum up a response ad from the opponent, resulting in a back-and-forth, mud-slinging cash cow.

Unfortunately we live in a broadcast area that covers multiple jurisdictions. Ohioans don’t vote for races in West Virginia and therefore don’t really care too much about the skeletons in the closets of candidates against whom we can’t vote. Yet in recent weeks, we’ve come to hear all about them, too.

As for those political candidates whose names will in fact appear on your ballots, they can be found around every corner as well. From fairs and street festivals to steak fry fund-raisers and ribbon cuttings for new businesses, anywhere you can find a crowd lately, you will likely find at least one candidate shaking hands, kissing babies and handing out pens, note pads, nail files and other paraphernalia with their name on it.

At least once a week, big political rallies have been taking place in the area as well. We have to raise an eyebrow at groups that claim that they do not support or oppose any political candidate, but are instead motivating the public to vote against big government policies. While it sounds good, there always seems to be an agenda being pushed that benefits one political party over another.

As Nov. 2 approaches, we encourage voters to look past the smoke and mirrors, to educate themselves about each candidate and issue, and to make a truly informed decision when they cast their ballots.