Your piece in Tuesday’s Post piqued my curiosity, so I did a little research on the reason why sheriffs are elected. I don’t know about Ohio, but in New Jersey, where I live, a sheriff is a constitutional officer. By law, constitutional officers must be elected.
Your editorial talks about the fact that an elected sheriff is a politician. If not elected, how would a county officer be selected? In New Jersey, our counties have elected Freeholder Boards as the county governing body. They were elected in county-wide vote. An absent-elected officer such as sheriff would have to be appointed by politicians. That makes the office of sheriff nothing more than a patronage position that virtually anyone could be appointed to.
At least, having an elected sheriff provides some choice to the people.
Kenneth Job is an Ohio
University alumnus.
