Political offices that go uncontested aren’t a sign of a healthy two-party system.

Regardless of what kind of job county residents think County Commissioner Charles Jones has done in his first term, it’s a little disappointing to see that no one was interested in challenging him for a seat on this important and influential board.

Hopefully the June 24 filing deadline for seats in the Kansas Legislature and U.S. Congress won’t see a similar display of disinterest.

Monday’s filing deadline for candidates for many area offices came and went without anyone Republican or Democrat signing up to run against Jones in the county commission’s 1st District. That leaves a write-in campaign as the only way to challenge the Democratic incumbent.

The lack of a competitor is a sign of support for or at least satisfaction with the job Jones is doing. But it also is a sign of apathy among community residents and apparently among local political party organizations.

It’s easy to see why most people would shy away from seeking political office. The county commission, particularly, is a time-consuming job that would be difficult to handle in addition to the responsibilities of a full-time job. It and other political offices place candidates under a microscope that sometimes is unfair and almost always is uncomfortable. Once people are elected, too many residents consider them open targets for all kinds of criticism that often turns nasty and personal.

But it is, nonetheless, essential to have a strong group of candidates willing to take on the rigors of a campaign and possibly public service. Even a popular officeholder benefits from some worthy opposition. Knowing that retaining their jobs isn’t a given keeps officials on their toes and reminds them they remain answerable to those who elected them.

It seems that local party organizations don’t place as much emphasis as they once did on filling their slates for public office. Nationally, there are indications that many people no longer identify strongly with a political party. Perhaps because the philosophical lines separating the nation’s two major parties have lost some of their definition, many voters like to think they are voting “for the person, not the party.”

That’s admirable in some respects, but one of the important roles of political parties is to make sure voters continue to have choices viable choices about who will represent them in important positions that affect their daily lives.

Local political organizations will have another opportunity between now and June 24 to offer some of those choices for state legislative seats and for positions in the U.S. Congress. In both bodies, incumbents have a great advantage but they shouldn’t be allowed to assume that their re-election will be automatic.

That simply isn’t how a strong, democratic, two-party system should work.