Be aware and get involved by attending the political forums sponsored by the Sweetwater County Library System. The forums will give residents a chance to become acquainted with the people who may soon be governing Sweetwater County. This is an important election year with several dynamic candidates vying for office; you don’t want to miss your chance to take part!

Janice Grover-Roosa, PR and Adult Programming Librarian for the Sweetwater County Library System, said “Due to the high volume of candidates in this election year our format for the primary election forums will be somewhat informal. For all of the scheduled primary election forums each candidate will be allowed 4 minutes for opening statements followed by 2 minutes for questions from the audience, with a 1 minute cap per question. After the question portion of the forum, candidates will be allowed 2 minutes for closing statements. Grover-Roosa has had some questions about how audience members will be chosen to ask questions, she said “Prompted by a show of hands, audience members will be randomly selected by Library staff to ask questions. In the event the audience does not have questions for any given candidate, a question will be pulled from a jar of questions provided by Library staff and patrons.” Grover-Roosa noted that the forums for the general elections will be more formal and include a moderator and panel with identical questions for each candidate.

Grover-Roosa also felt it was very important to mention that the primary election forums are organized in order to provide Sweetwater County residents access to the candidate’s platforms. Grover-Roosa stressed “The primary elections exist in order to choose a candidate to represent each party, Democrats and Republicans are not running against each other in the primaries, rather, they are running against other candidates within their own party in order to secure that party’s nomination.” She noted, although some of the forums include only 1 Democrat or 1 Republican, the Library System felt it would still be valuable to provide an open forum for candidates to state their platform even though those candidates are not yet competing against one another.

The first forum scheduled for Monday, July 26th at 6 p.m. at the White Mountain Library, located at 2935 Sweetwater Drive, will include the County Commissioner (2 year) forum followed by the County Sheriff forum. The next forum scheduled for Wednesday, July 28th at 6 p.m. at the White Mountain Library will only include the forum for County Commissioner (4 year seat). The final forum which will include forums for County Attorney followed by Clerk of the District, and concluding with County Coroner, will take place on August 9th at 6 p.m. at the Sweetwater County Library in Green River located at 300 North 1st East. Primary elections will be held on August 17th. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., for information on your voter’s prescient contact the County Clerk or visit the County Government’s website at http://www.sweet.wy.us/clerk/index.html.

Grover-Roosa urges all candidates to confirm their attendance to the forums as soon as possible. Unconfirmed candidates will likely not be included in the forums. Candidates wishing to RSVP can contact Grover-Roosa by calling 307-872-3200 or e-mailing her at jgrover@sweetwaterlibraries.com. The political forums are sponsored by the Sweetwater County Library System. For more information on Library services and events go to www.sweetwaterlibraries.com.