With slightly more than two months to go before the Nov. 2 general election, we expect individuals who ardently support a candidate or party platform will be mailing letters to the American-News and other newspapers seeking to sway other voters to cast a ballot for their candidate or political party.
To make this as fair as possible, the American-News has a few rules that we will apply to letters before we decide whether or not to publish them.
First and foremost, letter writers should be local and preferably, American-News subscribers. We receive letters from throughout Minnesota and sometimes from other states during election campaigns. Many are form letters produced and sent by campaign committees. Such letters are unlikely to be printed.
Other guidelines are:
Letters should be no more than 400 words. In the past we have bent this rule to the point of it being meaningless. That will not happen this year. Writers must state their point or points clearly and succinctly, or their letters will not be printed. We will not presume to edit your letter for you.
We will print one letter per person in support of their candidate or the party their candidate represents.
State in your letter why people should vote for your candidate, not just why people should vote against the other party’s candidate.
Know your facts. Rumors and half-truths serve no useful purpose. If we question an accusation made in a letter written about a candidate, we will ask you where you found the information so we may research it.
E-mailed letter are preferred, and must include the author’s name, address and phone number.
Hard copy letter received must be signed and include a valid address and telephone number so that we may verify authorship. We will attempt contact three times during our regular business hours. If we are unable to verify authorship, the letter will not be printed. Unsigned, hard copy letters will not be printed. We will not accept photocopied or faxed letters.
If we receive a large number of letters saying much the same thing, we reserve the right to choose a representative letter. We will indicate, in an editor’s note, the number of additional letters received stating the same thing.
No new issues may be raised in letters two weeks prior to the election. This will allow time for a person to respond to a claim made by an opponent.
Letters to the editor provide our readers with an opportunity to state how they feel about a candidate, the party the candidate represents, and issues about which the letter writer feels strongly. There is a reason this page is called “The People’s Voice.”
We plan to print a voters guide prior to the election giving candidates an opportunity to state their views an a variety of topics.
