If you’re starting to think the campaign season has already gone on longer than a typical election does, you’re not alone — and we still have five months to go before the general election. Now, here’s the good news. It’s finally filing week, when candidates for office put their money up and start getting serious about campaigning. Or is that bad news?

This year, the Snoqualmie Valley has no local offices on the ballot, but plenty of state and federal ones. All of the 5th District state legislator positions are up for election and both Representative seats in the 45th District of Washington’s House of Representatives. At the Congressional level, Representative positions in Districts 1 and 8 are both on the ballot, too.

The filing period runs through Friday. So far, only a few candidates, who already declared their intentions to run months ago, have registered:

For Representative Position 2 in the state legislature, both Paul Graves of Fall City and Matt Larson of Snoqualmie have filed;

Position 1, held by incumbent Jay Rodne of Snoqualmie, has no filings listed as of Tuesday morning, but candidate Jason Ritchie has declared his intention to challenge Rodne;

In the 45th District, incumbent Larry Springer has filed to run again for Position 2; and

U.S. Representatives Suzan DelBene, District 1, and Dave Reichert, District 8, have also filed.

Any challengers for these seats have only a few days to do it. I hope that each race gets some competition, so everyone has a choice.

More than that, though, I hope that everyone voting in the primary next week, the general election primary Aug. 2 and the general election Nov. 8 puts some thought into all of their selections. Go beyond the voters guide and what the pundits are saying and do some research on your own. Check incumbent candidates’ voting records and fact-check their sweeping statements. Two sources that I have found to be reliable are http://washingtonvotes.org and www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter. There are many other sources, some overtly biased, others more subtle about it. And since you can’t believe everything you read, try looking for the same information on several different sites.

It’s your vote. Make it work for you.