The Enterprise will be instituting our customary letters policy before the primary election Sept. 12.
We will publish political letters Wednesday, Sept. 6 but no political letters will be printed Saturday, Sept. 9. The exception would if a candidate feels he or she has received an unfair attacked. We will then provide an opportunity to respond to clarify, rebut or refute a previously published letter.
Because of the Labor Day holiday, it should also be noted that letters to the editor for the Sept. 6 edition must be received by 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 4. (The Enterprise has a drop box for handwritten letters.)
The same policy will apply before the General Election in November. We will publish a reminder of the deadlines closer to that time.
As a reminder, our policy regarding letters to the editor limits them to 350 words. We may edit them for length or ask the writer to do so, depending mostly on time constraints.
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It also is our longstanding policy not to publish letters that we determine are libelous in nature or in poor taste. A telephone number and address are required for verification purposes.
This probably sounds very formal. We don't mean to discourage letters and, in fact, we welcome them and the diverse opinions writers share on our pages. We also appreciate the time letter writers spend into putting their thoughts in print.
E-mail has proven to be mostly helpful in this process, but also has presented new challenges. One of them is the requirement for a telephone number and address. We need to be able to verify letters and often when our readers send them via e-mail, they forget to include this information.
E-mail also remains somewhat unreliable. Some letters have been lost in Spam-world forever. It is a good idea to call the office (732-3364) to be sure your letter - or news item - has been received.
We are still glad to receive handwritten letters as well.
Our policy year-round is to give priority to local letters, published in the order in which they are received. Thank you letters are printed as space is available. With e-mail our world has expanded, however, and sometimes has become more interesting.
