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Technology can only get us so far when it comes to mailings

My tongue tastes funny after licking all of these.

If you spent some time in this newsroom, you’d see all the tools we have to multi-task and get everything done quickly, efficiently and digitally first.

We can text, Tweet and send pictures from assignments and breaking news scenes. A lot of us have at least two computers on our desks, not to mention additional phones or tablets.

But when it’s almost time for elections, I can’t help but laugh at how there’s not really a better way to get mailings out to the candidates.

For both the primary and general election, I send out letters to all candidates telling them to go online and fill out a voters guide. This is in addition to the stories that we’ll do and the bios that we put online.

So when it’s that time of year — or the two times each year — I hand-address and seal envelopes for each candidate. Most of the time at least one person laughs at me as I get paper cuts or I complain that my tongue tastes funny.

I guess I could print out labels. But our desktops don’t have label making, so I’d have to do it at home (where I don’t have a printer or the Internet). And we have a typewriter somewhere, but it would take at least three times as long. So I sit and write in my chicken-scratch handwriting.

This year, I’m grateful it’s not a municipal year. Because those years, I’m sending out hundreds of letters. Today for the November election, it’s just 23. It’s the little things I guess.

Maybe one day we’ll just send out emails or tweets, but when it’s a municipal year, a lot of the candidates don’t use computers. So much for everyone being digital first.

Find everything you need to know about the Nov. 6 election at ydr.com/election. And let me know what issues are important to you as November comes too quickly for those of us planning coverage.