Here's how to make your voice heard on elections

With Election Day now barely more than two months away, our letters columns soon will be teeming with the passions of citizens hoping to influence the votes of their friends and neighbors. Today, let me run quickly through some guidelines that will help you join the conversation, if you're inclined to write, or better appreciate it, if you're just interested in following the lively and diverse points of view that are expressed.

The best way to reach us is by email at fencepost@dailyherald.com, and we welcome letters from almost everyone, regardless of their political point of view. But there are limitations.

First, you can't be a candidate, a candidate's relative or a candidate's staff member. Generally, we're happy to publish letters from politicians from time to time about issues they consider important, but during election season, it can become impossibly complicated to ensure that everyone gets equal access. So, for now, we've already stopped accepting letters and column requests from political candidates, and we won't resume until after Nov. 8. Instead, we'll strive even harder than usual to reserve the "Your Views" space for everyday citizens. At any time, we want the space to be a forum for individuals who don't have common avenues for speaking to the public at large. That's even more important at election time.

Beyond those considerations, though, our letters space is open to all points of view, as long as they are expressed with reasonable civility and good taste. To help ensure these qualities, we require writers to sign their full names and provide their hometowns. We also require writers to provide a phone number where we can reach them if necessary, but we do not publish that.

We monitor the "facts" that letter writers offer to support their points of view, and we reject letters when we find cases of clearly erroneous information. However, we don't have the resources to chase down every arcane statistic writers may offer or rumors they may have heard. Nor will we wade into the deep, gray mud of sorting interpretation from fact. Keep in mind as you read letters that they rarely come from experts, and items offered as fact should be subject to authoritative confirmation - even if you read them so many times you think they must be true.

To ensure a diversity of voices and reserve space for as many individuals as possible, writers are limited to only one published letter a month. Letters also can be no longer than 300 words, though you should bear in mind that much shorter letters often fit our space better and tend to attract more readers.

Don't wait too long. We'll open up extra space as needed during the election cycle, but often people wait until the last week and inundate us with more letters than we can accommodate. We do our best, but we don't guarantee every letter will be published.

At its core, democracy is the product of a lively exchange of ideas among the people who will be subject to the governments they elect and of the tax, bond and operational questions they decide. We intend the "Our Views" section to be an important part of that discussion, and we sincerely hope you'll jump into the mix with your own ideas and aspirations.

Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.