Editor:

Re Sheila Evans' letter in the Sept. 6 Journal, the tricky thing about getting enough valid signatures on a petition to run for office is that each signer must sign his name exactly as it is on the voter registration roll. Many of us may not remember, for instance, whether we registered using or not using our middle initial. Guess wrong when you sign a petition and your signature is "invalid."

Bobbi Ricca, Blue Lake

Editor's note: The letter writer is right to urge carefulness in how you sign a petition -- but wrong about why. Carolyn Crnich, Humboldt County's registrar of voters, says your signature won't be thrown out just for a missing, or added, middle initial. If you write a different address from the one on the voter registration roll, however, you've blown it -- that's the most common reason for rejecting a name on a petition, Crnich says.