YDR Insider

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.