It may be the middle of summer, but a new season is just beginning: election season.
Campaign signs are sprouting up on lawns and roadsides, a crop that will grow (some would say like weeds) in the coming weeks, leading up to the Sept. 20 primary and Nov. 8 general election.
Odd-numbered years feature the most localized races, when voters weigh in on county, city and school board positions. They’ll also elect commissioners for fire, water, sewer, hospital, park and port districts. Candidates are filing for office this week.
This Opinion page will be alive with debates over races throughout Snohomish County, and we invite you to join in. We’ll be running election letters to the editor throughout the campaign season, and this year we’re going to make them easier than ever to find.
Rather than simply adding election letters to the regular daily mix, we’ll run an extra page with nothing but election letters as volume dictates. That might be once a week, maybe twice – it depends on how many readers write.
Our goal is to facilitate an open and fair discussion of election issues. With that in mind, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:
* Limit letters to 300 words or less. The more succinct the letter, the more readers it’s likely to draw.
* Candidates should forget about trying to co-opt the process by orchestrating letter-writing campaigns. That gets repetitive and doesn’t serve readers, which is what these pages are here to do. If we receive multiple letters supporting a particular candidate, we’ll run a representative sampling.
* Letters written by candidates, their immediate family members or campaign officers won’t be accepted. This forum is for readers to make their points.
* Letters should deal with issues and candidate qualifications, and not make personal attacks. Let’s keep the discussion respectful.
* As with other letters, we ask that you include your full name and address and a daytime phone number we can call for verification. Only your name and hometown will be published with your letter.
* E-mail is the best way to send letters (letters@heraldnet.com), but we’ll also take them via snail mail (Letters section, The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206) or fax (425-339-3458).
Go ahead, warm up that keyboard and weigh in on the local election issues that matter to you. It’s your chance to have a say.
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