In the next few days, Sammamish and Issaquah residents should receive their ballots in the mail for the King County primary election in August.

Hold on to those ballots — but wait.

Before you fill them out, we hope you will consider attending two of the upcoming candidate forums to learn more about the candidates in both cities.

In Sammamish, Reporter staff will host and moderate a Sammamish Candidate Forum from 6-8 p.m. on Monday, July 17 at Sammamish City Hall. The nine City Council candidates facing a primary election in August agreed to participate in the event, which will be in a question-answer format. Positions 3, 5 and 7 are up for a primary.

Candidates will have 90 seconds at the beginning to introduce themselves, and then we will begin with the questions. They will have one minute to answer each question. The Reporter hopes to get through 11 questions by the end of the night, allowing for a 30-second wrap-up from each candidate before concluding the event.

Additionally, there will be an opportunity for the audience to write down and submit their questions at the forum. Please submit questions you would like us to ask the candidates to news@issaquahreporter.com or send them in a private message to the Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter Facebook page. The city of Sammamish will also record the meeting, but it will not be streamed live.

In Issaquah, the Issaquah Highlands Council will host an Issaquah Mayoral Candidate Forum at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 19 at Blakely Hall, 2550 NE Park Drive.

The public will have the opportunity to hear directly from candidates running for mayor of Issaquah and their positions on issues affecting our community. The forum is moderator-led, driven by questions from the community submitted in advance of the event. Submit your questions at www.issaquahhighlands.com/event/candidate-forum-mayors-primary.

All are welcome to attend both events. We hope you will educate yourselves on who wants to lead your city and ask questions.