LACK OF INTEREST IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT

Although practically every citizen of the United States is also a citizen of a county, the people have as a rule shown surprisingly little interest in county government.  As generally found it affords a striking example of poor service resulting from a lack of teamwork.  County government has the reputation of being one of the weakest spots in our whole system of government.

Will county government survive?

We seem to have gotten into the habit of not expecting much service from the county government.  Where the township government is strong, as in New England, it takes the place of county government.  Where people live in cities, they look to the city government to serve them rather than to the county government.  In rural districts the people have come more and more to look to the state and national governments for such service as they expect government to give.  These facts might suggest the question whether or not we really need county government.

One recent writer says,

There are some parts of the country where I can see that the county will pass out of existence entirely in a very short time, unless it does adjust itself to the new conditions. [Footnote:  H.S.  Gilbertson, in the University of North Carolina record, No. 159, October, 1918, p. 37.]

The same writer says,

Unless the county does measure up in this way, the powers of government and the services which it renders will have to drift away from local control and be placed in the hands of some government more fit and which will probably be further away from home.

EFFECTS OF THE LONG BALLOT

Students of county government attribute many of its defects to the “long ballot.”  In one county in North Carolina, at a recent election, there were twenty-five different candidates for county offices on each of three party tickets, making seventy-five candidates among whom each voter had to choose.  Township and state officers were also elected at the same election, bringing the number of persons to be voted for up to about fifty out of 150 candidates.  It is apparent that the average voter would have difficulty in voting intelligently.

GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A HEAD

The long ballot has other results than the mere difficulty of intelligent voting.  One of these is a government without A head.  While the board of supervisors or commissioners is nominally at the head of the county government, it has to work through the various administrative officers.  These are also elected by the people, and may be of the opposite political party.  At all events, they are independent of the board, not responsible to it, and may or may not work in harmony with it.  A former member of a county board in North Carolina says,