As in past years, The Citizen is again opening its opinion pages to candidates for contested local and locally-decided political offices.

Beginning June 28, The Citizen will publish 400-word (or less) essays from the candidates for the Fayette County Commission and the Fayette County Board of Education.

In addition, essays are invited from candidates for contested races for the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia state Senate. The races must involve districts that include Fayette voters.

The Citizen this year will pose some questions to candidates for school board and county commission, the answers to which will be included in the printed essays but will not count toward the word limit of 400 words per essay.

The answers to the questions and the essays must be in the body text of the e-mail messages, not attachments. Essays sent as attachments only will be discarded.

There will be NO charge for this service; the essay space is free to the candidates.

Essays will be published for three weeks prior to the July 18 general election.

In addition to answers to questions posed by The Citizen to the county-level candidates, the content of the essays is limited only by what the individual candidates wish to say to the voters.

Deadlines — which must be strictly observed — are as follows:

• Thursday, June 22, 5 p.m., for the first e-mail essay to reach The Citizen’s e-mail in-box: editor@TheCitizen.com. Publish date is June 28.

• Wednesday, June 28, 5 p.m. (one day earlier because of the holiday and earlier print time for the next week’s paper) for the second essay. Publish date is July 5.

• Thursday, July 6, 5 p.m. for the third essay. Publish date is July 12.

All candidates’ essays must reach The Citizen’s e-mail inbox by the above deadlines or they will be discarded. Candidates should make sure their essays arrive well in advance of the deadlines.

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