In two days Adams County voters will head back to the polls to make selections in a handful of county Democratic primary runoff elections.

Among the top races are Adams County Chancery Court clerk and Adams County sheriff.

In the chancery clerk race, the retirement of long-time clerk Tommy O’Beirne has cleared the way for a new face. With no independent or Republican challengers the new clerk will either be Brandi Lewis or Joe Murray.

Both are qualified and should serve the county well. We still believe Murray is the best equipped to make improvements to county government.

His work as county administrator has made the job look relatively easy. It isn’t, but Murray’s organization and, quite frankly, hard-headedness not to give up when something doesn’t make sense has served the taxpayers well. The best example of that is in his discovery that the county had, for years and years, not been properly receiving all of the tax money it was due. A clerical glitch decades ago and then the subsequent flaw in government that “we’ve always done it that way” diverted more than $400,000 each year in county funds to the school district by mistake. Murray found what no other administrator, clerk or outside auditor had.

That’s what we need more of in county government. In addition, we still throw our support for Democratic candidate for sheriff to Travis Patten. His intelligence and experience will allow him to serve the public well in the role of sheriff. He will face Randy Freeman in the run-off race, who, like Lewis, can certainly do the job, but is slightly edged out by his challenger.

Voters are blessed to have four good candidates for these two important positions. All voters must do now is make sure we take advantage of the opportunity and vote on Tuesday.