As a recognized Connecticut Civically Engaged Organization (CEO), The Newtown Bee is committed to presenting fair, balanced, responsible, engaging, and non-confrontational content we hope will inform residents and spur them to register to vote if they have not already done so. We hope they will then complete a mail-in or absentee ballot, or vote locally and in person on Election Day.

To help residents and voters learn as much as possible about the candidates they will hopefully consider endorsing on the ballot November 4, The Bee, starting two years ago, initiated a very limited compromise for the election season to its long-standing policy of keeping endorsement letters in our Letter Hive to 300 words or less: we are again permitting any candidate on the ballot to submit a single letter of self-introduction of up to 500 words up until the print edition of October 31.

We believe these letters, many of which have already started running and are available for review at newtownbee.com, will complement our two-week presentation of political profiles scheduled to run in early to mid October. Requests for, and formatting of, those profiles have already circulated to all candidates through their town committees, and have been issued to the individual candidates who qualified to run on separate ballot lines.

With the specifics on endorsement letter length reiterated above, we must also remind anyone contributing a letter of endorsement about our stated requirement to provide your residential address and contact phone number. This information is never disclosed, and will only be used for verification when and if required, or if we must make the sender aware of an issue that may affect their letter being published in a timely manner. The omission of one’s address and phone number could delay or prevent a letter from running as planned.

Moving on, we understand our Letter Hive contributors and the opinions they express are their own, but this newspaper will not be a party to political mudslinging nor any type of general or specific negative attacks on candidates, the organizations they represent, nor their personal beliefs. If you have something negative to say, promote it elsewhere. If we detect such content in letters or online comments, they will not be published.

Letters that do not attack, but may appropriately question or critique positions of specific candidates or the parties they represent — which might prompt or require a written rebuttal from candidates or those with differing political views — are fine up to the October 31 print edition, when even they will not be considered for publication due to the lack of opportunity to rebut before the election. Only letters of endorsement will be accepted for the October 31 edition or online.

Finally we remind readers that while the deadline for letters is noon sharp each Wednesday, we appreciate letters being sent in as soon as possible.