Dear Editor,
While I stand with your editorial board against negative campaigns and for informed voting and issues-based candidates , I feel you’ve clumsily missed your own role in promoting what you call “election smearing.”

In your March 22 editorial, you write “We also urge voters, who have an even bigger obligation, to take time and first meet the person you are going to vote for and then to make sure you make every effort to understand the candidate’s vision before you pull the lever on voting day.” Yet, your newspaper continues to run “If the election were held today…” polls for county elections not contested until 2016 for which no candidates have yet qualified. You ask readers to choose between the incumbent and “anybody else who runs.”

Seriously, does this in any way promote people meeting the candidates and understanding their visions before choosing? No, it doesn’t. Negative campaigning and smears work because people vote against a candidate more often than they vote for one. And, where might they get that idea?

You’re right about the need to change our politics, but you need to show some responsibility and lead by example. Stop these silly polls and focus on the issues.

Sincerely,
Maurice Carter