Election 2025 is underway. The time period for potential candidates to collect petition signatures has begun.

We hope the process goes well and affords voters in our region real, distinct choices for our local offices.

We have editorialized before that these local offices are almost certainly the most important offices on which we can vote — that is still true.

In our federalist, democratic republic, the authority and responsibility of governing is meant to be decentralized and kept closest to the people affected.

While the presidency receives the bulk of voters’ attention, the men and women serving on your school boards, boards of township supervisors and borough councils have an important and immediate role in the direction your neighborhoods and communities will go.

As we have noted, it worries us that so many of these local offices may be uncontested. Our system thrives on transparency and debate — on different people, with equally sincere yet different views and philosophies on what society needs, making their cases to the electorate and the electorate making informed decisions.

Transparently hearing these contesting viewpoints and making a decision, of course, requires people willing to step up to being candidates and speaking. Too often in recent years we are not seeing that commitment. And even as we appreciate the sincere sense of service that motivates the unopposed candidate and believe the unopposed candidates often perform well, we still fear the system suffers — from their ideas not being challenged and from voters not being challenged to consider competing visions for the direction of Lycoming County.

We understand and appreciate that running for office requires sacrifice and patience. We understand that some members of our community have legitimate reasons for declining to consider candidacies — for instance, it would be unethical for members of our newsroom staff, charged with fairly reporting on the conduct of local government and the criticisms lobbed at local government by constituents in a free society, to seek office themselves.

But we hope enough of our neighbors recognize the benefits of vigorous campaigning and the importance of affording voters a choice to offer their names for consideration on 2025’s ballots. Our communities will be better served for it.