By Deb Murphy

Cable news talking heads, campaigning politicians and Michael Moore have all said the 2018 mid-terms are the most important election of their, and hopefully your, lifetime.

Thanks for adding to the nerves of political junkies. Nerds can stay up late tonight to see how the gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia or the senate race in Texas end up. That’s the stuff for CNN and Fox.

Considering the relative smallness of Inyo and Mono county populations, we’re not going to have a massive impact on state elections. We’ve all been inundated with political ads to clarify or confuse us, so let’s just skip down to what for us are significant, impactful elections, the ones for which we all need to vote: the locals.

First Inyo County.

Bishop gets to choose three city council members and three trustees for the Bishop Unified School District. Neither of these races are as filmic as the Beto O’Rourke/Ted Cruz Senate race, but they will help determine the direction your city and schools will take.

Appointed incumbent Chris Costello and Howard Wu are running for a two-year term on the Council. Incumbents Joe Pecsi and Karen Schwartz and Stephen Muchovej are battling it out for two seats.

Three seats are in contention on the Bishop school board. Incumbents Taylor Ludwick and Josh Nicholson are challenged by Virginia Figueroa, Jessica Tex, Claudia Moya-Tanner and Cami Ellis.

Big Pine and Owens Valley school districts are also holding elections. In Big Pine, Yolanda Cortez, Roberta Lovig, Carrol Hambleton, Jerome Webber and Marilyn Mann are running for two seats. In Independence, Keith Leon, Cecil Faircloth, Joey Peterson, Allie Whisler and Norm Wilder are chasing three seats.

Now, Mono County. Mono residents, depending on their voting precinct, will get a shot at seats on the Southern Mono Healthcare District, the Mammoth Community Water District and County Office of Education. Swall Meadows falls within the Bishop Unified School District.

The SMHD board has two open seats with a choice of five candidates: Caroline Casey, Grady Dutton, Joanne Hunt, Yuri Parisky and Ryan Wood.

The MCWD has three candidates vying for two seats: Robert Creasy, Dennis Domaille and Dawn Vereuck. Residents of Mammoth Meadow, Mammoth Minaret, Mammoth View and Old Mammoth will see these races on their ballots.

Mammoth Pinecrest residents will pick one member for the water district with Kay Hartman, Eric Kaufman and Gary Thompson on the ballot.

Mammoth and Long Valley will pick two members of the Mono County Office of Education, Area 3 from Rebecca Carniglia, Greg Jennison and Sue Bouska. Lee Vining and June Lake have a choice of Jake Suppa or Jim Kerby.

Polls are open and will stay open until 8 p.m. We’ll have the preliminary results of local elections, and numbers on how Inyo and Mono voted in state-wide elections tomorrow morning.