The Citizen’s election forum is headed to the Web this year. In previous years, The Citizen has printed essays from candidates in the print edition and had to severely limit the candidates’ responses because of space considerations.

Where previous printed forums have been limited to 400-word responses from each candidate, this year‘s forum promises to be wide open as the candidates have the unlimited space of The Citizen’s spacious site on the World Wide Web — www.TheCitizen.com.

Candidates in contested Fayette races in the July 15 Republican and Democratic primaries will receive — via email — questions from The Citizen this week about issues concerning their specific races.

The candidates will then get to mull the issues and send their email answers back to the paper no later than next Monday, June 30, at noon.

Starting the evening of July 1, the candidates’ unedited and unabridged answers will be posted online, and then the forum opens up.

Candidates’ responses to our questions likely will start receiving almost immediate feedback from our spirited group of bloggers and commenters, and the jousting will continue until the July 15 election.

There will be NO word limits on the responses. The candidates may be as brief or as wordy as they desire. And they may continue to engage in the public process of political dialogue via our real-time online comments function.

If you support a candidate, encourage that candidate to participate in The Citizen Online Political Forum.

Candidates who choose not to participate in the online forum will be identified, and our online posters will be able and encouraged to comment on those non-participating candidates as well.

Candidates and citizens should dust off those keyboards and be prepared to engage in the most free and open debate that has ever been staged in Fayette County politics.

Just a note of caution: Our online posting rules will be in effect — No obscenities, smutty remarks, “outing” of unnamed posters or personal attacks on private persons, and no one under the age of 13. Otherwise, have your say.