Although the primary election is still a couple months away, with the recent filing of petitions by candidates who are running for office, we have to concede that the “election season” is here.

And it’s not going to end until after the November general election, if then. It seems over the past few years whatever “honeymoon” newly elected candidates received from the political parties is gone. New politicians used to be given a few months to see what they were actually going to do in office.

Now, the minute one person is declared a winner in an election, there are two or three others already campaigning to unseat him.

So, as the primary looms and the general election isn’t too much further away, it’s time to discuss The Oakland Press policy on election-related letters to the editor.
We normally get letters in waves and so we have a backlog.

We try to print all letters that we receive, provided they meet some basic criteria. They must be around 250 words and not use foul language. You can express your opinion but if you’re going to state something as a fact, it must hold up as such.

The most time intensive aspect of processing letters is checking out what writers are calling facts. We can’t argue with your opinion but we will not knowingly print something that’s stated to be fact when it isn’t. To give you a simple example, if someone says the capital of Michigan is Flint, we’re not going to let that go in a letter. If possible, we’re correct the error. If not, we’re take out the statement.

Also,let’s make something perfectly clear — to coin old, trite phrase — we reserve the right to edit your letters. We promise to try and not change the meaning of your letter or your opinion. Sometimes, the letter is too long and needs to be cut to fill the space available. Sometimes it carries incorrect information.
We cannot publish a letter stating something as fact when it isn’t. If nothing else, it affects our creditability as a newspaper. But even more important, it could leave the newspaper and the writer open for a lawsuit.

That’s another restriction to letters to the editor, we cannot allow libelous statements to be printed. You can say the mayor isn’t doing a good job but you can’t say he’s stealing public money unless there’s an ongoing public investigation or if the individual was convicted of the crime.

You also can’t say the mayor is running around with his neighbor’s wife. Even if it’s true, that’s an invasion of his privacy, which provides more grounds for a lawsuit.
So, with these reasonable restrictions in mind, let’s take a look at our policy involving election-related letters.

All letters dealing with the Aug. 3 primary election must be received by The Oakland Press no later than 5 p.m., Friday, July 23. This will give us time to process them and get them in by Tuesday, July 27. No election-related letter will run after that date. This is done to be fair to all readers. We don’t publish letters within a week of the election because everyone would want their letter to be run on the day of the election or the day just before. Obviously, we don’t have the space to accommodate all of those letters.

And speaking of space, because of our limitations, the maximum length for these letters that endorse a particular candidate are limited is 150 words.

So, please feel free to e-mail at allan.adler@oakpress.com or just mail letters to me at The Oakland Press, P.O. Box 436009, Pontiac, MI 48343. But please, be sure if they are election-related to observe the deadline and length restrictions.