An interesting part of local elections is that the candidates are a lot more real to us than those who serve in federal office who we may only see on TV. We can get to know these people. We pass them on our errand runs. We may have had chances to build trust with them previously, and we may have been rear-ended by them before. How do we weigh the pros and cons of these candidates when we know the nitty-gritty of some of them and only the social media highlights of others?

I’d like to change focus for just a moment to draw a parallel with another mechanism we are all familiar with, at least on a surface level- the jury trial. Juries are made up of citizens local to the area of the trial. A group of prospective jurors are called, qualified, and chosen to serve for the length of the case. They then go through the trial process, being educated on the facts of the case from the perspective of both the accused and the accuser. Then they deliberate and come to a decision regarding the guilt of the accused.

Look around at your neighbors. The one whose lawn is all weeds. The one with the noisy dog that won’t shut up. The one whose kids leave toys all over the sidewalk. The one with the teenage drummer wannabe. The one who has block parties that take up all the street parking. The HOA President who gives out fines for all the above infractions. These are the people who go into the pool of people who may determine the execution of justice. What could possibly make this the right way to determine if someone is punished or goes free?

Jury trials are also expensive and can be time consuming. So why use this method? What makes a jury the best way to run a criminal justice system? Jury selection itself can take days, and trials can be measured in weeks. Those weeks easily add up to thousands of dollars in attorney fees. All this combined with the fact that humans are fallible.

Intellectually, shouldn’t our wise, noble judges – or perhaps panels of experts – be the ones to cut through the irrational emotions of normal, everyday humans? In this day of ubiquitous video footage and DNA evidence, it seems like guilt or innocence should be fairly easy to determine.

I posit that juries still hold an important place in society. It is the humanity itself, warts and all, that makes juries the best balance of justice and mercy- literally embodied and assembled to hear the arguments of the facts and feelings that combine to make up a case.

Now back to elections… I think the representative humanity modeled by our elections is what makes our system of government the best we can have on Earth. Isn’t there a beauty in 2026 County Commissioners Election the benign weaknesses we have as individuals? The fact that we need others around us to accomplish a full measure of creation. Imperfect always. But we must keep in mind that Utopia literally translates as “no place.” It is the imagined society we seek for but cannot reach or create.

Our candidates have a variety of perspectives. They each have a vision for the county.

There is intention in finding someone local rather than hiring a professional public administrator from a nationalized pool of applicants. Every person is going to have biases based on their past experience. Everyone is going to have industry relationships of some kind and specific concerns closer to their heart than the concerns you care about. That’s true no matter who we pick. So don’t be too afraid of the inadequacies all people come with. All candidates come with benefits that promote them and some flaws they will need help to balance out.

These commissioners will contribute to and lead a culture that shapes our future as residents of this spot in Utah. We need people with good character who can hold important lines and extend grace when that is needed. We should expect our leaders to respect the good of the past and current circumstances and work to iron out the areas that need changed.

This is how we build the future. This is how we make things better for ourselves and our children. This is how we become a community.

Juliene Snyder is an Ogden City resident.