We were pleased to vote this morning without incident.
There were at least twice the number of poll workers and others who were on hand to be sure everything went as smoothly as possible.
What we weren’t pleased to see were the number of uncontested elections on the ballot.
We know the people who hold the uncontested positions were happy it was so, but this simply reduces the peoples’ choice as to who is operating the government at the county level.
We wonder if these uncontested elections — mostly in the operational positions in county government — are indicative that perhaps the positions really shouldn’t be up for election at all.
We’ve maintained for many years positions that are not representative should not be chosen by voters.
By allowing these positions to be elected, they sometimes become de facto lifetime appointments because of the strength of an incumbent in an election.
The leaders in these positions are also operating departments where success is often hard to determine by the general public.
So, the public has to determine who will operate a position they often don’t understand. Most people confuse the tax assessor with the tax collector. Most of us know what the coroner does, but how would we know if the coroner was doing a poor job? The chancery court clerk has twice the number of responsibilities than most of us would ever realize.
We are glad we have the choice to vote and all our votes count.
We are glad our government is set up to follow the will of the people.
We are glad so many of our friends made the decision to vote today.
We are also glad for those who chose to put themselves to the test of public opinion and invest in a life of public service.
