Letters section can be a great political forum

During a recent editorial-board interview for election endorsements, a candidate said something all the others in the room echoed. Given the distressingly low voter turnout in the primary, he hoped people would be out in force on Nov. 5, even if they weren’t voting for him.

As our board works through the process of interviewing the candidates on the November ballot, we would say the same thing. Whether you value our endorsement list or use it to line your birdcage, we hope you will get out there and vote.

On Oct. 20, we’ll publish the first of our endorsements for the various races and ballot issues. These editorials reflect only the opinions of the board members listed at the top right corner of this page. We’re well aware that we are merely one more voice in the community, not the voice. We reach decisions by interviewing candidates, talking with others in the community and studying the issues. Sometimes it’s a difficult call, and sometimes it’s very clear. The four of us debate and then come to a final decision through consensus.

Many of our readers have already come to their own decision and aren’t shy about sharing that with the rest of the county. Like every other election season, we’re publishing political letters. We’ve run many already and will continue to do so until a few days before the election. We intentionally leave a little time between the final letters and election day so there aren’t any unfair, last-minute surprises for candidates.

Planning to submit your own letter? Great. It helps if the letters are shorter in length. We encourage 150 words, but will allow up to 300. If it’s over that limit, we won’t accept it. We appreciate passionate letters, but keep the nastiness out of it. As with any letter, we reserve the right to edit for length, grammar, clarity and taste. We can’t print every letter, but we’ll include as many as possible. Instructions on where to send them are in the letters section to the right of this editorial.

Candidates and readers should keep in mind the letters section is not a scientific poll of who’s ahead. It is a forum for discussion and expression. Some candidates have strong support among letter writers but don’t fare well at the polls. And the opposite it true, too. We try to run letters in the general order we receive them and in representation of the amount of letters we receive for candidates.

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