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 7, The Bee has initiated a very limited compromise this election season to its long-standing policy of keeping endorsement letters in our Letter Hive to 300 words or less. We are permitting any candidate on the ballot to submit a single letter of self-introduction of up to 500 words up until the edition of October 27.

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.

We have also been queried by the local Republican and Democratic Town Committees about whether The Bee will be holding some type of in-person or virtual debate or forum ahead of November 7. We are currently evaluating that request, and should have a final answer for the top of ticket candidates and interested voters by the edition of September 29, if not sooner.

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 or any type of general or specific negative attacks on candidates, the organizations they represent, nor their political or personal beliefs. If you have something negative to say, feel free to promote it elsewhere. If we detect such content in letters or online comments going forward, they will not be published.

Borrowing from one of our national partners, Trusting News, we remind all readers that The Newtown Bee pledges to always engage in journalism to serve the community, democracy, and the truth. When we are reporting on candidates and the upcoming local elections, we will endeavor at all costs to be humble — we certainly don’t know everything.

Finally, please be reminded, as we are, that our society is complex, diverse, and fast-changing. No one is the final arbiter of truth; no one has arrived at perfect humanity, you included.