Handling letters to the editor is one of my primary responsibilities at The Oakland Press and so naturally, talking with those who people who write the letters is a daily occurrence.

Many call to inquire where to send a letter or often they’re wondering when their letter will be published. Sometimes I have to explain to them why it won’t be published or why it was edited and/or trimmed.
Most of the people who write letters are reasonable, courteous and understanding. Their question or questions were answered and they’re ready to move on to their next submission.

During the “election season,” I usually handle a much larger number of inquiries then at other times of the year. One of the reasons for this is because people have submitted a letter pertaining to a pending election race that came in passed the deadline.

In the case of this Tuesday’s general election, I have had to explain — in e-mails and over the phone — why a writer’s letter couldn’t be printed.

Basically, experience has taught us that we need to put a deadline on election-related letters because we get so many and we don’t have the space to run them all. For Tuesday’s election, the deadline was last Wednesday, Oct. 20. Letters received by then were either published on the Opinion Page or put online on our website. We tried to process all of the election-related letters by Tuesday, Oct. 26.

For those people who missed the deadline, I have been trying to call and explain why their letter didn’t get in or be processed.

I’m happy to say most of the people understand and are very accepting of the explanation.

Some people have been particularly courteous — such as Pauline Woll, of Farmington Hills, who said she had worked diligently and revised her letter several times to get its length down to the required 250 words.

Walter Dilber of Groveland Township, a frequent letter writer, also was thankfully more than understanding. So were Henry Maloney of Troy and Linda Ulrey of Bloomfield Township, just to name a few.

I want to thank all of those people who submitted letters that were passed the deadline. It takes effort, time and dedication to write and send in a letter and so I appreciate all of letters I’ve received.

It’s particularly heartening to know that most people understand why the policies were instituted.

As I’ve said before and will undoubtedly say many many more times — it’s all in the name of fairness.