Adams County voters have their work cut out for them Tuesday as they select county supervisors.

With an unusually high number of candidates — 21 people are on the ballots — choosing will be difficult.

Without fail each candidate has good intentions and stepped forward because they truly felt they could make a difference in the county. That’s encouraging as it shows us that voters have not lost faith in the system. Selecting our county leaders is not a popularity contest; it’s a matter of leadership and communication skills, personality and vision.

The abundance of choices in means runoffs are likely. Further, two races have both Republican and Democratic challengers, so those races will be decided in the November general election.

After interviewing nearly all of the candidates — a few would not or could not make themselves available — we endorse the following in Tuesday’s primaries:

District 1: On the Democratic Party ticket, Mike Smith impressed us with his demeanor, commitment to making something happen on recreation, understanding of the need for open meetings and desire to run the county like a business.

On the Republican ticket, veteran supervisor Sammy Cauthen earns the nod over his lone Republican challenger.

District 2: Democrat Henry Watts earns our selection. Watts’ businessman approach to government is needed. We only wish he’d pick and choose his battles more carefully. In Watts’ first term, almost every single issue was subject to great debate that occasionally drove issues into the ground. That said, he’s easily the best choice.

Lone Republican Joe Edit will face the Democratic winner in November.

District 3: Incumbent Thomas “Boo” Campbell earns our endorsement. Campbell’s experience in the job is helpful, but we were more impressed that the number of challengers he’s facing seems to have given him a wake-up call. Campbell believes recreation is among the biggest issues and said he’d like to see the city and county work together to improve recreation. If the voters choose him, we’ll expect progress, not just election talk.

District 4: Darryl Grennell, the incumbent, brings much to the table as supervisor. He understands the role and seems to have his heart in the right place when it comes to how government issues affect people. The county needs his professionalism and intelligence on the board.

District 5: How can you not like incumbent S.E. “Spanky” Felter? In addition to just being a good guy, Felter has been a good supervisor. He’s pushed the envelope on things that matter, challenged the traditional ways of the board and managed to get others to think differently. Felter’s homespun, common sense approach has saved the county a great deal of money, from hopping up on a roof to show someone how to fix a leak to working to make sure the county received a fair price for equipment it needed to sell.

These candidates are the best choices to lead the county into a bright future.

We hope, even if you disagree, you’ll exercise your right to vote on Tuesday.