Here’s who The Modesto Bee recommends in the March 3 election, plus what to do to vote

The Modesto Bee endorses the following candidates:

• U.S. Congressional District 10 — Josh Harder
• State Senate District 5 — Mani Grewal
• Stanislaus County Supervisor District 1 — Bill Zoslocki
• Stanislaus County Supervisor District 5 — Tom Hallinan
• Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Seat 2 — Jeff Mangar
• Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Seat 5 — Jared Carrillo
• Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Seat 6 — Annette Rees

All endorsements are the result of deliberation among members of The Bee Editorial Board after in-person forums or debates featuring candidates in a given race. All such forums were streamed live and now may be viewed at youtube.com/user/TheModestoBee/videos.

The editorial board is composed of Editor Brian Clark, Opinions Editor Garth Stapley, Research and Information Specialist Maria Figueroa and visiting editors Puja Mehta and Keir Wilkinson.

Newspapers have endorsed candidates for office since their inception in colonial America, when such publications were the only form of mass media. Times have changed, but newspapers continue to make endorsements in an effort to help readers put candidate positions and ballot proposals into perspective — not to tell people how to vote.

All seven endorsements are explained in editorials, which can be viewed at modbee.com/opinion/editorials/, or by clicking on links if you’re reading online. Races not listed above were not chosen for endorsements; this sometimes happens when a campaign does not appear to be competitive.

The Bee intends to continue the public service of interviewing candidates, either in public — for example, the Jan. 22 congressional “Debate at The State,” featuring all six U.S. House of Representatives candidates — or sharing them online. Such events help voters efficiently and effectively become acquainted with candidates and their positions on important issues.

This roundup of Bee endorsements appears now because ballots were mailed Monday and are expected to begin arriving in the mail any time for people in permanent vote-by-mail status, also known as absentee voters.

Some will mark and return ballots now; others may wait two or three weeks, or even up to Election Day, when they can leave ballots at any of eight drop-off locations, see stanvote.com or call 209-525-5200 for more information.

Mail voting has become far more popular than precinct voting in recent years. When President Obama first won election in November 2008, for example, less than 53% of Stanislaus County voters cast their ballots by mail; by November 2018, participation had risen to 76.7%.

As long as we’re throwing around statistics, it might be interesting to know that 34.2% of voters in Stanislaus County are Republican, 37.3% are Democratic and 22.2% have no party preference; the rest are sprinkled among smaller parties.

Other important information:

• If you’re not registered to vote and miss the Feb. 18 deadline, visit election headquarters — 1021 I St., Modesto — or a satellite office where you can register even on Election Day.
• Four satellite offices, where people can vote up to three days before the primary and on Election Day, will be set up in Oakdale, Salida, Turlock and Patterson. Check stanvote.com or call 209-525-5200 for locations.
• On March 3, people can vote in person at 117 polling places throughout the county. New equipment features touch-screen voting and an audio option that lets people have a ballot read to them.
• No-party-preference voters can request ballots of Democratic, American Independent or Libertarian parties. The Republican, Green and Peace and Freedom parties require that voters stick within their respective parties for the primary.