Click here for a complete list of our election recommendations.

This is an election like none before.

Not just the presidential race, but also the way we are voting in California and the makeup of the ballot. Chalk it up to the pandemic and to an accelerated state push for local government elections by district to increase minority representation.

For three months now, we’ve been interviewing candidates and reviewing ballot proposals to bring you what is now a list of recommendations for 166 races and measures. We’re done.

We didn’t get to as many as we would have liked. We never do. But this year was harder than ever. There were more contested races than in the past; fewer incumbents coasted to reelection without opposition.

The surge in district elections meant that for many local agencies what was previously one at-large race was often broken into two or three contests by district. The heightened climate of political activism also seemed to increase the number and diversity of candidates.

Our endorsement list is now complete — or as complete as it’s going to get. We’ve run out of time to go deeper. To deal with the crush, in many partisan races for the state Legislature and Congress, we simply jettisoned those that aren’t competitive so we could focus on races that are.

Now it’s up to you.

Please read our recommendations and full editorials that are available online at www.mercurynews.com/endorsements or www.eastbaytimes.com/endorsements. We don’t expect you to necessarily agree, but we hope we provide some insight and stimulate thought and discussion.

Then, whether you agree or not, please go vote — the earlier the better.

The good news is, thanks to the wise pandemic-induced distribution of mail-in ballots to all California voters, the elections offices of Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties had already received by Thursday morning ballots from roughly half the registered voters.

For the rest of you, there are lots of options for returning your ballots or voting in-person by Tuesday. We encourage you not to wait until then, to avoid the lines of people on Election Day, to turn in your ballots today or over the weekend.

In these troubling times, it’s more important than ever to participate in our democracy. Please vote.