To say that The Oakland Press is flooded with letters to the editor around election time is an understatement.

People during these electoral periods want to express their views on a pending millage or bond issue and on who they think is the best candidate for a public office. The goal, generally, is to try to convince others that their view or endorsement is accurate and should be followed.

Many times, letter writers are testing the waters. They may not be completely sure of their position and so they are trying to see how many people agree or disagree with them.

As with all letters to the editor, we try to run them on a first come, first serve basis. That’s why you may see an influx of letters for or against a topic and then another influx expressing the opposite view.

One thing that we like to make “perfectly clear” is that if we run more letters for a particular issue than against it — or vice versa — that doesn’t mean The Oakland Press necessarily endorses the issue. It only means that at a particular time, we got more letters for the proposal than against it.

Although we usually run the letters as we get them and if there is a backlog, some letters may not get in for a week or two. However, sometimes when issues are particularly “hot” or time sensitive, we bend the rule a little.

For example, around election time, if we get 10 letters about the primary but because of other letters we receive, we weren’t be able to get all of them in by the letter deadline, then we may run a couple letters out of order.

And “deadline” is a critical point here. We usually set a deadline for receiving letters to the editor for a specific election one to two weeks before the balloting. Then, we try to get those letters into the paper no later than a week before the election.

For example, for the Aug. 3 primary, all letters dealing with candidates or ballot issues must be in to us by no later than 5 p.m., Friday, July 23. No election related letters or guest opinions will run after Tuesday, July 27. The maximum length for these letters is 250 words, unless they merely endorse a particular candidate, then the limit is 150 words.

Obviously, the deadline for receiving letters must be advanced enough to allow us to get all of them received on time into the newspaper by about a week before the election.

There are reasons for not running letters within a week of an election. They are called fairness and practicality.

The Oakland Press used to run letters even on the day of the election. But we found that people were waiting to submit their letters until just before election day hoping for publication on election day. The general theory was that the last letter read by people before voting would influence their selections.

This created a flood letters that logically were impossible to deal with because we just didn’t have the space to run them all.

So, by establishing deadlines, we allow our readers to express their opinions and get them published. It seems to be the fairest way to handle election-related letters. At least we haven’t found a better way yet, although we’re always open to suggestions.

Remember, the operative question is what is the most reasonable and fair policy?