Michigan is a key battleground state in the coming Nov. 5 election. How we vote has the potential to change the future of the country. So, it’s no surprise that the candidates are visiting – a lot. Former President Donald Trump visited twice within a week, his running mate JD Vance appeared in Big Rapids, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is rallying in Detroit over Labor Day a few weeks after a controversial rally at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with running mate Tim Walz. We are committed to being at these events on your behalf. We are also committed to giving you the information you need to make an informed decision – for free. Starting this weekend and going through the day after the election, all readers will be able to access our election coverage. In essence, we’ve decided that politically minded readers will become short-term subscribers for free. To open this election portal, all you need to do is sign in with an email address when prompted. If you are digital subscriber, you already have access to our content and won’t see a prompt. If you are print subscriber who has not activated your digital access, now is a great time to do that. Why are we making this change? We believe citizens should have access to information about the candidates and issues. But we also know that our long-term strategy to be a sustainable business is through committed, paying subscribers. To entice new subscribers, a number of stories every day are “subscriber exclusives.” A computer algorithm helps us choose those stories, including pegging some election stories as subscriber exclusives. During the next two-plus months, everyone will be a subscriber for election coverage. Read as much as you want, whenever you want. Share stories. Print stories out. Make informed decisions. As I said, current digital subscribers don’t need to do anything – you’ll continue to see all the coverage if logged in. Same with print subscribers who have activated the digital aspect of their subscription. (To activate, use your computer, tablet or smartphone to go to myaccount.mlive.com. Follow the steps to activate; if you already are, it will note that.) For everyone else, an email address is a low-obligation way for you to start a relationship with us and vice versa. We’ll be able to offer you benefits like our Michigan Politics newsletter or other content that is tailored to your reading interests. The relationship we have with our subscribers is the core of our business model, and it’s the resource that funds the journalism we do in our communities and across the state. To our current subscribers, I say thank you on behalf of all MLive journalists. To those who would like to subscribe now and support our work, visit https://subscribe.mlive.com and view our current offers. And for those who simply want to continue to read our political coverage, give us your email and jump in for the election season. And for one and all, buckle up – the big names are going to keep coming until Nov. 5, and we may be in for a bumpy ride. # # # Note: Last week’s column included a photo caption that incorrectly named the area near the site of Gabbro Falls. It is Ironwood, not Iron Mountain. | 