I want to draw your attention to some of the important journalism The Enquirer is researching for you this summer and fall. You may have already read this column in the August 12 edition of The Enquirer or seen some stories on these issues, but I want to make sure that in the busy-ness of life these don't fall through the cracks. The most important may be our Protect Your Vote project. We found that tens of thousands of Ohio votes are never counted in each election. It happens for several reasons, such as poll workers' making mistakes that send voters to the wrong precinct (like interpreting the street address 798 as an odd number because it started with an odd number). Some counties are better than others, meaning that whether your vote is counted depends on where you live. And even though Ohio had a nationally embarrassing election in 2008, it has not made all the changes recommended in that post-mortem. Investigative reporter Barry Horstman has already published one exhaustive research piece, and we have more to come. For example, he obtained copies of the signature books from the Hamilton County Board of Elections and spent many hours counting the 30,000 provisional ballots cast in 2008 and 2010, precinct by precinct. He read court filings and transcripts. He read several thousand pages of reports and recommendations that Ohio and national groups have already done on the state's election system. This problem is a scary proposition for what is shaping up to be a very close presidential election in just about a dozen weeks. And no one else will do the kind of meticulous and tedious research that Barry did to get to the bottom of it. Readers responded to our first Protect Your Vote stories with more examples of problems and new issues we will dig into. We are going to continue this watchdog work right up until Election Day. And we will equip Enquirer readers with information you can use in the voting process to make sure your vote counts. Please contact Barry - at bhorstman@enquirer.com - if you have examples of voting problems, new issues or questions. Speaking of Ohio's importance in this presidential election, I wanted to be sure you were aware that Enquirer reporters are traveling with President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney anytime they are in Ohio. Jane Prendergast and Paul Kostyu will be with the candidates to look out for the interests of voters in the Tristate. They will watch how the candidates may change their messages as they move from one part of the state to another or as they make repeat visits. And they will attend the Republican and Democratic national conventions to report back on the activity and points of view of the people from our region who are delegates. Let us know if there is something specific you want Jane and Paul to be watching. Jim Hannah is continuing to dig into what happened and what will happen at the Lodge Boys Home in Campbell County. He has already reported shocking charges from whistleblower employees and from a school resource officer that the people running the home gave children medication prescribed to others, didn't stop medications when they were supposed to, choked the boys, and sent them to school dirty and hungry. He is still reporting to get to the bottom of who was responsible and why, and whether the home will reopen. Hamilton County commissioners and Cincinnati City Council members will have painful decisions to make this fall when they create their budgets for 2013. Sherry Coolidge and Jane Prendergast will go in-depth to ensure we all fully understand the implications of their proposals - who directly suffers, the long-term impact on our region and options our elected leaders aren't pursuing. And they will tell you how you can be heard. Sherry has already done detailed stories about Hamilton County's mental-health and senior-services levies that will be on the ballot. In both cases, commissioners plan to ask residents to vote on the same levy rate rather than raising it, even though the same tax rate on lower property values will generate less money and services will be cut. And our Ohio education team - Dee Amos, Jessica Brown and Michael Clark - will watch how Gov. Kasich plans to change the way the state funds schools and what that will mean for education and for local tax rates. They will watch what a new state school superintendent plans for us, after former superintendent Stan Heffner resigned this month following an ethics complaint. And they will be watchdogs to see how it plays out in our region when schools start holding back third-graders who cannot read well. Watchdog reporting like these examples - coverage that is deeply researched, based on data and documents, and that brings context and new ideas to the table - is our most important role. These issues affect our families as they do yours. Our team has the training and the experience and drive to make sure things work in our community the way they're supposed to and that you have the facts and context you need to tell community leaders what you want them to do. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact the reporters directly (their email addresses are right in their bylines on their stories), contact their editors (their contact information is at the top of each section in print and at cincinnati.com), or, of course, reach out to me at editor@enquirer.com. We are happy to serve. | 
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