Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris take on an old question at Politico.

Allen wrote that he’s voted only once: In a Democratic primary, when his roommates campaigned their hearts out for a candidate and he didn’t want to let them down.

VandeHei, who covered the Bush-Kerry race for The Washington Post, wrote that he abstained from voting in the 2004 general election because he was told he would cover the winner and didn’t want readers to think he voted for against his subject. He sat out the Virginia primaries this year, but doesn’t object to voting in local elections that the Politico doesn’t cover.

Harris has voted in every presidential race since 1984. He wrote that he didn’t participate in the Virginia primaries because he didn’t want people to know within which party he would have voted.

I have voted in elections in which I’m not required to reveal a party preference. But I often wonder: At what point does political participation become an ethical no-no for journalists? Is it enough to stop at running for office? At what point does a conversation between an editor and a reporter turn into a newsroom’s unwritten commentary on politics?

Forgive me for tearing a page out of my own newspaper, but here’s a thought from Manning Pynn, public editor of the Orlando Sentinel. He recently discussed journalism with students in Central Florida and expressed to readers his admiration for simplicity:

“Ethics codes come in a variety of sizes. The New York Times, notably, came up with one more than 50 pages long a few years ago. I’m sure that it covers every possible contingency but less confident that I could commit it to memory.

“The Sentinel’s is decidedly more compact and, in my view, more likely to be remembered — and used. Still, I favor the sort of reminder that can be reduced to a wallet card.”

In that spirit, he tells budding journalists to focus on the following “seven admonitions”:

1. Don’t accept free stuff.
2. Don’t cover friends, family — or enemies.
3. Don’t use your position for personal benefit.
4. Don’t make stuff up.
5. Explain where you got your information.
6. Don’t steal other people’s work.
7. Don’t alter photographs.

Pynn admits those don’t cover all the pitfalls, but that sticking to them will avoid common problems.

What do you think? Suggest an eighth rule below.