EDITORIAL
Voters should ignore last-minute allegations

With only about a week left in the 2002 political season, they are starting to crawl out of the woodwork.

"They" are the anonymous fliers or mailings assigning dastardly deeds or terrible decisions to someone.

"They" are the telephone calls alleging things about a candidate that, if true, would be terrible.

"They" are the whispers or rumors that someone heard from someone who swears they're all true.

The problem is, these allegations and insinuations and charges are all almost impossible to prove out one way or another in the few days left in the campaign.

And that's why you're hearing them now.

The people who spread this stuff don't want you to analyze it, check it out or hold it up to the common-sense test.

They simply want you to hear it and believe it.

Don't.

Assume this: If the authors of such material really had the goods on another candidate, he or she would have spread the word long before this. If the charge is true, he or she would want it to be out there for the longest time possible.

But if the charge is false, or at least distorted or misleading, he or she wants to distribute it when there isn't enough to time check it out.

So, if you hear or receive something disturbing at this late stage in the game, you can almost count on it being false, distorted or misleading.

Ignore it.