Election letters: What will (and won't) get run

◼ Our goal here at the Times-Standard is to get your letters verified and published as quickly as possible while giving everyone who wants to participate the opportunity to be heard on the Opinion page. So we've put the following guidelines in place for political letters to the editor: - Times-Standard

First and foremost, if you're writing a letter to the editor endorsing a candidate and encouraging readers to vote for that person, you must focus on the issues. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing gratitude to a candidate or announcing a political event are not appropriate to be published as letters to the editor and would be considered paid advertising.

Like all letters to the editor, political letters need to 250 words or fewer — or they will not be published. The Times-Standard will NOT edit for length. It is the author's responsibility to get his or her point across in 250 words or fewer. Letter length is important due to space constraints.

Letters must include the author's full name, address and phone number — the phone number will be used to verify the authenticity of letters. Neither phone number nor address will be published. Anonymous letters, or those that cannot be verified, will not be published.

"An" author is pretty self-explanatory to me, but we do receive letters with numerous names on them; these will not be published. We will publish one letter per author every 21 days. We do this so that numerous people have the opportunity to have their voice heard, not the same people over and over again.

We will publish letters within 24 hours of verification.

Letters are expected to be exclusive to the Times-Standard and if they are not, they will not be published. All letters will also be posted on our website www.times-standard.com.

Letter-writing campaigns will not be published.

Letters are published in the order they are received and verified. Letters should be emailed to letters@times-standard.com or mailed to: Letters to the Times Standard, P.O. Box 3580, Eureka, CA 95502. You are also welcome to drop them off at our office located at 930 Sixth St., Eureka.

Make sure you include the phone number where you may be reached the majority of the time to speed up verification.

Tuesday, Oct. 28 will be the last day that we will publish letters to the editor that bring up a NEW issue about a candidate. This is to assure fair time for a rebuttal if one is received. With that said, we will run letters to the editor endorsing a candidate and addressing an issue up to Election Day, but please remember the one letter per author every 21 days guideline.

Most importantly, remember that we will not allow you to tear down a candidate's reputation on the Opinion page, no matter what party a candidate belongs to or who the person is.

OTHER HELPFUL GUIDELINES:
◼ How to get published in the Mad River Union (and other papers) GOOD ADVICE!
◼ In General: Times Standard Guidelines for Letters To The Editor and My Word Opinion Pieces
◼ NFRW's Tips For Successfully Writing a Letter to the Editor