Mission Local delivers 30K special election print issues, in English, Spanish and Chinese

For the second November election in a row, Mission Local staff hit the streets to deliver a special print issue filled with our election coverage to give residents isolated by language or access to computers the information needed to make informed ballot choices. 

Teams of reporters, interns, editors and staff fanned out on (rainy) Thursday and Friday and distributed some 30,000 copies of the issue, a 24-page short broadsheet. They left stacks at libraries, cafes, shops, campuses, as well as nail salons, laundromats, dentists’ offices, dive bars and senior housing.

In North Beach, multiple shopkeepers and pedestrians along Columbus Avenue and at Washington Square Park at first said “no” when approached by our crew, but then did a double take when told what we were hawking. “Mission Local? Nevermind!” one said, and took the issues out of our reporter’s hands.

We printed 10,000 copies each in English, Spanish and Chinese. All are free. Mission Local makes an effort every election to provide accessible coverage — we have no paywall, everything is free to read and all our election stories are available on a neatly designed dashboard. 

Over the course of several weeks, reporter Xueer Lu put together our top election stories and was responsible for the design of the entire project. Isaac Cannon, our advertising lead, and Lu oversaw distribution — a major task for a small team!

This year, our print run was made possible by the Excelsior Action Group and Monkeybrains — their support was instrumental in getting our issues printed and distributed into the hands of voters across the city.

This year we also put together a digital voter guide — no endorsements, just information on all the ballot measures and candidates. That, too, was done by Lu.

As for every election, our coverage includes weekly questions to candidates in the major races: Congress, Board of Supervisors, and school board. Their answers, published in “Meet the Candidates,” can be found here, and we added many of the responses in our print issue.

Money in politics is another focus — there is a lot of it in this election. We are tracking the flows closely, identifying who’s giving and who’s getting. Our dashboard has a campaign finance section, and last week we published our latest installment of “BigMoneySF,” an ongoing series mapping out the donors, politicos and public-pressure groups angling for your votes.

We believe strongly that information on elections should be easy to access for everyone. Too much of it in this city sits behind a paywall or comes to your front door in a glossy mailer paid for by some unidentifiable committee. Political advertising does not have to tell the truth, which is why we check the facts and look for the real story.  

You can find free, quality reporting in print at the locations below, while supplies last. If you want an issue, email us at info@missionlocal.com.

The election is Nov. 3. Find your polling place or ballot drop-off box here. 

Can’t find a hard copy of the paper? You can read it here in English, Spanish and traditional Chinese.

Our marathon print delivery, in photos