Is there an election out there? That's a question I'm getting from readers as the Nov. 7 voting date rolls around. Some want to know what races will be on their ballots, some don't think The News & Observer is providing enough coverage and some don't like the coverage they see.

"Please help me understand why The N&O is doing such a poor job on reporting and educating Wake County residents on all of the facts and related news on the current school bond issues," writes Gina Stevenson of Raleigh.

We'll get back to that in a minute, but yes there is an election. You may not have noticed it, because most of the contests are low-profile, but you'll have a chance to vote Nov. 7 on races ranging from congressional seats to judgeships to county commissioners to local initiatives, such as the Wake County school bonds. Most people in Orange County, my home, aren't aware that they'll be voting on whether to redraw county commissioner districts, to give rural voters more say.

But what people won't be voting on are big-name statewide races, because there are none in North Carolina this year. No governor, no U.S. Senate races are on the ballot. Bill Krueger, The N&O's Capitol editor, is frustrated that the big national election story is whether Democrats will take control of Congress, but in North Carolina the two most competitive congressional races are outside The N&O's readership area.

In the Triangle, two of the three congressional seats -- held by Democratic Reps. David Price and Bob Etheridge -- aren't considered vulnerable, so The N&O's attention has gone mostly to Republican Vernon Robinson's high-decibel campaign against incumbent Democrat Brad Miller in the 13th District. "In a perfect world, we'd cover all the races equally," Krueger said. "It's not a perfect world. We have to make a decision about how to use our resources." There will be voter information on the Price and Etheridge races, but not the lathered horse-race coverage of the Miller-Robinson campaign.

Krueger also notes that there isn't much to write about local legislative races. Of the 28 seats in the five-county area around Raleigh, only 10 are contested. And of those, he said, fewer than a handful are competitive. The absence of choices is a sad commentary on how effectively legislators have been able to use their reapportionment power to carve safe districts for themselves. The big story will be whether Republicans are able to take House or Senate control from Democrats damaged by the Jim Black scandal.

The only statewide races are for state Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals. Quick now: Who's the chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court? Who's her opponent? The N&O hadn't written about that race as of Friday, but it did run a story profiling the Appeals Court candidates on Oct. 10 -- placing the story on the obituary page. "While the Court of Appeals is not the most glamorous of elective offices, it is an integral part of government and deserves more than the obit page!" Jim Pomeranz of Cary wrote me.

I agree. In fact, I think precisely because the races are so obscure, The N&O has a responsibility to give them prominent display -- at least the City/State front. These are important offices. Never mind the question of whether they should be filled by voters rather than appointed, as in half the states.

In the absence of statewide races, pulling power to the polls this year is likely to be exerted by hot-button local races -- particularly Mike Nifong's campaign for district attorney in Durham and Wake County's $970 million bond referendum. The N&O has run several stories on the Nifong campaign and -- Gina Stevenson's complaint notwithstanding -- a lot of stories on the bond election. There have been four in the last week, and if you want to see a lively ongoing debate among readers, go to education reporter Keung Hui's WakeEd blog on the N&O Web site (http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/). Or read the many letters in The People's Forum.

On Wednesday, the paper will publish an N&O poll showing how the bond issue is doing among voters. Then, on Oct. 29, says Wake County Editor Holly Stepp, there'll be a full-page "cheat sheet" on the bonds. "If you haven't been paying attention and you're looking for something to tell you everything you need to know to vote, that will be it," she said.

A couple of readers have asked me when The N&O will run a Voters Guide giving a rundown on all the elections on the ballot. The paper traditionally publishes it the Saturday before the election, figuring that voters aren't paying attention until then, and this year's edition comes out Nov. 4. But with the advent of early voting, which allows voters to cast absentee ballots at polling places before the election, there is increasing demand by readers to see the Guide sooner. To satisfy that, The N&O posted the Guide on the Web site last week (http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/elections/voters_guide/), in time for early voting that began last Thursday.

Krueger acknowledges that The N&O is running behind on its election coverage this fall -- largely because his staff was consumed by the Kevin Geddings trial coverage for four weeks. Still, the paper in October had published 34 election stories, by my count, through Friday, not counting national election stories, not counting the paper's editorial endorsements. Much more will be coming in the next two weeks.

And that's what you should expect. Covering elections is the most elemental role of a newspaper, because it gives you the information you need to perform your role in a democracy.

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