NEW YORK Just weeks after the New York Post became the first major daily to endorse John McCain, and The Seattle Times (on Sunday) came out first for Barack Obama, the Huntsville (Ala.) Times is among the first to reveal plans to endorse … no one.

But the Advance Publications daily, in a Sunday column by Editorial Page Editor John Ehinger, is inviting readers to make the endorsement themselves.

Ehinger’s column makes clear that the paper is not endorsing for president because it really wants to focus on local and regional news.

“Let me get to the point: This presidential election year, The Times’ editorial board has decided not to recommend (or, if you prefer, “endorse”) a presidential candidate,” he wrote. “This isn’t the first time we’ve made such a decision, but it’s the first time we’ve made the decision for the following reasons: Our strength is state and local issues and subjects. While TV and radio have local news, it tends to be narrow and limited in quantity. If you want to know what the city Planning Commission did last week, where do you look? To The Times, of course.”

He later adds that “we don’t have access to the candidates. I can’t call Barack Obama or John McCain (and maybe not even Bob Barr) and ask them to come in to meet with the six-member editorial board. In every other race, we do have access to the candidates — local, state and federal. We’re talking to those candidates this year as usual, and we will make recommendations, if we haven’t already. Face-to-face meetings are how we evaluate them, a better method than looking at their campaign material.”

But the paper will still offer published support for the presidential candidates, from readers, inviting them to send in written commentaries favoring either nominee, which will then be reviewed and the best supporting each one will be published the Sunday before Election Day.

“And we may run more than two once we get the entries,” Ehinger said. “(And if there’s any interest, we also welcome entries favoring Ralph Nader, Bob Barr or other independent candidates, as well.)”

Wise to the efforts of some political entities to get their views in the paper through mass mailers and such, Ehinger adds, “We do ask that the prose be your own, not something cribbed from a Web site or printed campaign material.”