The Richland County Republican Party spent this off-election year giving a lot of thought to our role in the elections for city council and school board. After months of meetings and numerous discussions, we formed a committee to interview candidates in these nonpartisan races, deliberate and recommend endorsements to our governing body for approval.

Once endorsed, these candidates will receive the full backing of our considerable pre-election organization including hundreds of volunteers working on their behalf with yard sign distribution, phone calls and e-mails.

This plan was recently labeled “outrageous” in an editorial in this newspaper, which, incidentally, uses exactly the same procedure in its own endorsement process. So where did we get such a shocking idea? Actually, we got it from the same place many businesses get their best ideas — the competition.

For many years, local Democrats have, in effect, endorsed candidates in nonpartisan races and communicated these choices to their voters. Frankly, they have been beating the pants off of us.

Richland County voters are familiar with the voter guides distributed outside traditionally Democratic polling locations on Election Day. These perfectly legal “how to” sheets look similar to the ballot and give instructions for how to vote a straight Democratic ticket and which nonpartisan candidates to vote for.

While we are not clear on how the Democrats decide whom to endorse, election returns testify to the effectiveness of this strategy. So much so that we have decided to copy it. We know a good idea when we see one.

Think back to the last Election Day. After months of being inundated by ads for president, senator and local legislative races, you finally stood behind the curtain to make your choice. By that time you were probably familiar with the top candidates, but what did you know about nonpartisan races at the bottom of the ballot? If you are like most voters, you did not have much to go on other than the endorsement of The State’s editorial board.

For this reason, the Richland County GOP simply decided to meet with each candidate and let our volunteers pick the best ones to endorse.

From the outset, our goal has been to create an open and fair process that would give citizens more information about candidates. As with any pre-election advice, voters are free to embrace or ignore it. But we are betting conservative voters will welcome the information.

School boards and city councils collect millions of dollars in taxes and decide how to spend these funds on programs ranging from law enforcement to cultural grants to classroom curriculum. So it is reasonable to think citizens would want to know everything they can about these decision-makers before voting. Surely conservative voters would benefit from knowing which candidates share their views on tax policy and governmental reform.

Election returns tell us that both Republicans and Democrats running for seats in the Legislature receive roughly the same number of votes per precinct as their party’s top-of-the-ticket candidate. It is our plan to transfer this loyalty among our voters, just as the Democrats have done with theirs.

We will invite all nonpartisan candidates — regardless of any political affiliation — to meet with us to discuss their vision for our community.

Candidates counting on support from Republican voters to win on Election Day would do well to consider our endorsement tantamount to a primary election.

For candidates with limited campaign resources, this will be the opportunity to win our hearts and gain our muscle. Gain this endorsement through the strength of your ideas and we will put our get-out-the-vote machine to work for you.

Likewise, we invite voters to look on this as a much-needed and long-overdue piece of information they can take to the polls with them on Election Day.

We are not hijacking the political process; we are participating in it.

Mrs. Nolan is a volunteer for the Richland County Republican Party, http://www.richlandgop.com/.