It’s our favorite time: fall on an even-numbered year.

The colorful leaves are falling, the air is just cool enough to be comfortable and political candidates are hammering each other in their TV ads.

In about a month, the polls will open and make their voices heard on a variety of issues, from allowing Illinois voters to recall the governor to choosing the political makeup of Congress for the next two years.

We may not be electing a president this November, but we are electing a governor. Between current governor Pat Quinn and Illinois senator Bill Brady, do you know who’s the better candidate? If you can answer yes, great job. If not, keep reading.

As we’ve mentioned in previous editorials, a healthy democracy relies on an active, well-informed citizenry to vote in all elections. If you do not know who to vote for, or why you should, or how to vote, that’s where we step in.

Over the next few weeks, you will see articles that will hopefully answer all of these questions. Do read them, and write to us in letters to the editor so that we can adjust our coverage to include your questions.

As for the candidates themselves, you can harness the power of the Internet to research the candidates. Look at their official websites, read their interviews, look at the negative ads about them and more importantly, read the news stories about them. It’s time to decide for yourself whether you trust this man or woman with this kind of political power.

It’s less than a month to Nov. 2. Let the countdown begin.