This time next week we will be at the polls casting our votes for candidates for local offices, including Circuit Clerk, Sheriff and Adams County Supervisors.

We also will be voting for candidates for statewide offices including, Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, state representatives and senators, among others.

Beginning today, the Editorial Board of The Natchez Democrat is writing editorials announcing the candidates we think are best suited for the positions they are seeking.

We have spent the past couple of weeks interviewing the candidates to get a sense of their abilities to do the jobs they are seeking.

All of the candidates are good people with significant experiences, and I believe each are motivated by a desire to make Adams County a better place to live, work and raise families.

Through our interviews we wanted to see which candidates are aligned with the goals we see as important to the community and the positions they are seeking.

Some of our top priorities and concerns for the Adams County community are economic development, recreation and the transparency and accessibility of the candidates.

Obviously candidates’ stances on those issues weighed into our decisions for endorsements.

We also prefer candidates who have relevant experience for the offices they are seeking and knowledge of the positions they seek to hold.

Our endorsements are recommendations based on our access to the candidates and our unique positions of covering the offices for news stories.

As members of the media, we have a front row seat to the elected officials’ day-to-day operations and get to know something about how those positions work since we write stories about the issues the elected officials in those positions deal with.

That gives us a unique insight into the offices, and we are passing on our recommendations for people who may not be able to follow the issues as closely as we do.

Today we start with our pick for the Circuit Clerk’s office, and we will be offering our recommendations through the rest of the week in the days leading up to the election.

We are not trying to tell people how to vote. We are simply offering our opinion of whom we think is best suited to fill the jobs based on the criteria I have outlined above.

I believe, however, that all of the candidates, regardless of whether we endorsed them, are good people who have the community’s best interest at heart and are passionate in their quests to serve the community.

All of them would make good public servants if elected.

That is clear from our interviews with the candidates over the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, study up on the issues and the candidates, make up your own minds and plan to go to the polls next Tuesday to cast your votes for the candidates you feel will be lead our county and state over the next four years.

Scott Hawkins is editor of The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at 60-1-445-3540 or scott.hawkins@natchezdemocrat.com.