I've found it terribly hard to find out when and where local elections are held. Yes - the local county website has this information. But that's only useful if you already _know_ there is an election upcoming. If you don't know, you don't know to go check either.

Local communication has completely broken down. Few, if anyone, watches local TV, listens to local radio (if they haven't been replaced by Sinclair et. al) , subscribes local newspapers (if they exist). I'm not so upset at people, because they have no avenue to learn this information except word of mouth.

National politics at least has enough money to pay for ad spots. Local campaigns rarely can afford such measures.