I just got my primary ballot and noticed the extreme lack of candidates. On both ballots there are plenty of positions with one candidate or no candidate at all. If you can only vote for one candidate, is it an election?
The following are running unopposed:
- Michael Cuffe for State Senator
- Niel A. Duram for State Representative
- Jim Hammons for County Commissioner
- Robin Benson for Clerk and Recorder/Auditor/Assessor/Surveyor
- Darren Short for Sheriff
- Steven Schnackenberg for Coroner
- Marcia Boris for County Attorney
- Taralee McFadden for County Superintendent of Schools
- Sedaris Carlberg for County Treasurer
- Mathew Cuffe for District Court Judge
- Jay C Sheffield for Justice of the Peace
There is no candidate for public administrator. The only races with multiple candidates will be for United States Representative, for County Commissioner (district 1), for Supreme Court Justice #1, and for Supreme Court Justice #2.
In short, there were multiple candidates to vote for in only 25% of the races.
When was the last election?
It feels a bit odd to be asking “When was the last time there was an election?” about something local. As a kid, I sort of assumed that elections happened everywhere in our country, as scheduled, and it was only foreign countries that lacked elections. Unfortunately, it’s a question worth asking. About the Trego School Board, certainly. Last year, we were writing about vacant school board positions, and the need to get an application in to the school clerk, for an election to be held in May. That’s what should happen (every year). What actually happens (and not just on…
Trego's Mountain Ear 
It is particularly scary to be voting for unopposed judges. Very few people know the legal and intellectual requirements for good judging. I personally have seen Mike Cuffe’s son in a courtroom, doing an excellent job with a drunk driver who killed two people. Judge Cuffe appropriately gave him a stiff sentence. I would vote for him because I saw him in action, doing his job properly. That cannot be said of all judges.
Sent from my iPhone
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