Democrats have decamped from their convention in Boston and Republicans are gearing up for their convention in New York.

Traditionally, election campaigns don’t hit their full stride until after Labor Day. This year, it’s different.

Partisans on both sides are motivated, political advertising is saturating the airwaves and people are eager to contribute their views to the process.

Excitement for the Nov. 2 election bodes well for a large turnout and an interested electorate.

Letters to the editor about President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have been pouring in to the Sun Journal. Unfortunately, a fair number of writers aren’t playing by the rules. There’s a scourge out there and it’s hurting everyone who hopes to have a letter to the editor published.

With the increasing integration of the Internet into campaigns, information is available almost instantly to volunteers. Republicans, Democrats and advocacy groups of all stripes are capitalizing on our wired culture to spread their ideas and rally supporters. They’re also trying to pull the wool over the eyes of editorial pages around the country.

The Sun Journal requires that letters to the editor be exclusive and original. Simply put, that means the person who signs a letter to the editor has to be the person who wrote it and the same letter can’t be sent to other newspapers.

We’ve had a rash of letters recently that have been taken directly from Web sites, talking points and information sent out by candidates. When a writer lifts passages that someone else has written and doesn’t cite the source, that’s plagiarism – a fancy writer’s word for stealing.

If we discover a letter has been taken from another’s work, we won’t publish it. Period. We consider the letters fake, as bad as the spam that clogs e-mail inboxes.

Letters created en masse allow campaigns to steal the integrity and credibility of other people. It’s easy and quick, and is meant to create the illusion that a groundswell of public opinion is building.

Such campaigns require people to lie, and they cheapen the marketplace of ideas. Undoubtedly, these campaigns are able to slip letters into the Sun Journal and other newspapers, but we are checking.

Normally, letters to the editor are limited to 250 words. That holds true for letters that talk about particular issues. However, letters that advocate specifically for the election or defeat of a particular candidate are limited to 150 words. We do this so we can publish as many letters as possible. If current trends continue, the Sun Journal is on pace to break our record for the number of letters to the editor received and published in a year’s time. It’s great news, but we strictly enforce length limits so we can publish as many letters as possible.

We encourage readers to send their comments to the Sun Journal. Public discourse on the issues of the day, that’s what opinion pages are all about. We want to hear from you.