As the election season gears up, the Suffolk News-Herald will have coverage of each of the 16 candidates running for local office.

It promises to be an interesting year locally as well as nationally. Five people will contest the mayor’s seat, and each of the three borough incumbents on City Council has at least one challenger.

On the School Board, three incumbents will run unopposed.

The News-Herald will have one story on a mayoral candidate each Sunday in October. The order was chosen using a random sequence generator at random.org. The schedule is as follows:

• Oct. 2 — Kerry Holmes
• Oct. 9 — Brian Bass
• Oct. 16 — Gerald Staten
• Oct. 23 — Charles Scott
• Oct. 30 — Linda Johnson

The News-Herald will report on borough-level candidates each Wednesday in October.

The three School Board candidates will have a story on Oct. 5.

The City Council borough races will follow on successive Wednesdays, in alphabetical order by borough — Nansemond Borough (Lue Ward and Ben Fitzgerald) on Oct. 12, Sleepy Hole Borough (Roger Fawcett and Raymond Batton) on Oct. 19 and Whaleyville Borough (Curtis Milteer, LaTroy Brinkley, J. Harold Faulk and Vanessa Harris) on Oct. 26.

Election Day is Nov. 8. Absentee voting has started, and the last day to register to vote or update your registration is Oct. 17. Find more information about those opportunities at election.virginia.gov or by calling 514-7750 to reach the Suffolk Voter Registrar’s office.

Look for more information — including a complete list of polling places and reminders about voter identification requirements — in the Suffolk News-Herald as the election gets closer.