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More than 30 turn out for Luzerne County naloxone training

Luzerne County receives 22 applications for 3 division head jobs

Forget what you heard about the &#8220;Trump effect&#8221; in Pennsylvania, and remember to keep your politics in perspective and your focus on the facts.The Department of State goofed this spring by supplying incorrect numbers that suggested a tsunami of voters had switched parties prior to this month&#8217;s presidential primaries. Many pundits suggested Republican Party hopeful Donald Trump&#8217;s presence in the race was triggering the massive shakeup.Turns out, a contractor for the Department of State reportedly made a boo-boo by incorporating numbers from 2015, so the supposed surge is really more of a big wave. The revised figures show about 150,000 voters &#8211; not 250,000 &#8211; have changed party affiliation since the year&#8217;s start, multiple newspapers reported this week. Across the state, about 89,000 people switched party affiliation to Republican, while about 60,000 transferred to Democratic. Another 9,500 or so hopped to a third party.That&#8217;s not to downplay the high level of interest in the 2016 presidential race. New registrations and party-swapping prior to April 26&#8217;s primaries in the Keystone State reflect people&#8217;s desires to have a say in the final outcome. The candidates &#8211; warts and all &#8211; are compelling people to get involved in the process. That&#8217;s good for democracy and potentially beneficial for final vote tallies in those down-ticket races &#8211; including a U.S. Senate post and several state offices &#8211; that otherwise might not attract much attention.The downside: Hyper-fast dissemination of every new claim, counter-claim, poll result and prediction not only can be confusing for voters, it can create false assumptions and distort reality.Thankfully, voters easily can tap into several resources to help them separate facts from campaign trail hyperbole and outright whoppers.&#8226; <a href="http://www.politifact.com/" target="_blank">Politifact.com</a>. A project of the Tampa Bay Times and its partners, Politifact offers a &#8220;Truth-O-Meter&#8221; that analyzes certain claims and ranks their veracity with labels such as &#8220;mostly true,&#8221; &#8220;half true&#8221; &#8220;false&#8221; and &#8220;pants on fire.&#8221;&#8226; <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/" target="_blank">Factcheck.org</a>. A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, Factcheck.org includes a section called &#8220;2016 elections,&#8221; which delves into specifics for each of the five major presidential candidates (three Republicans and two Democrats).&#8226; <a href="http://votesmart.org/" target="_blank">Votesmart.org</a>. An unbiased treasure trove of information, Votesmart.org even supplies a &#8220;Vote Easy&#8221; feature that allows participants to &#8220;find your political soulmate.&#8221; Select from issues such as immigration, guns, Social Security and national security, then answer a few questions and find the candidate, including Libertarian and Green party candidates, who most matches your philosophy.&#8226; <a href="https://ballotpedia.org" target="_blank">Ballotpedia.org</a>. Self-described as &#8220;the online encyclopedia of American politics and elections,&#8221; Ballotpedia.org covers the gamut, from policies to polls.Visit websites such as these to help you make thoughtful, fact-based decisions on this year&#8217;s major races. Despite what it might seem during turbulent times, the facts still matter.

Our Opinion: Allow the facts to guide your voting; these websites separate truth from tall tales