The Nov. 7 ballot is a complicated one, with local, state and national races as well as local and state questions. Some of the state initiatives and referenda are confusing; fortunately, the local issues are straightforward.

One question being put to Montezuma County voters is whether to remove the term-limit restrictions that now apply to elected county officials.

Term limits were first promoted as a solution to some very real ills that plagued the American political system. Those who had gained power easily became entrenched, could raise campaign funds much more easily, and were difficult to defeat. Those who were on the outside looking in suffered extreme disadvantages. Term limits seemed like a good way to combat those problems.

As so often happens, the one-size-fits-all solution didn’t fit small, rural populations very well. Elected officials in places such as Montezuma County are hardly career politicians. They’re underpaid, if they’re paid at all, and they’re certainly underappreciated. They learn their jobs through the school of hard knocks, and just about the time they’ve got most of the situation figured out, term limits kick in and they must be replaced. That doesn’t serve their constituents well at all.

It doesn’t make sense to take away from voters the right to retain those officials they believe are doing a good job. Inadequate office-holders can be removed (and should be, long before term limits boot them out) by citizens who seek out, nominate and elect better candidates.

Occasionally, we see an election in which two or more highly qualified candidates vie for the same position. The debates that result keep fresh ideas blowing across the political landscape, and those elections are a wonderful change of pace.

They’re hardly typical, though. For every hotly contested race, there is at least one for which the incumbent has no challenger — not because he or she is perfect, and not even because no one cares about that particular office. Instead, seats go begging because there simply aren’t enough bodies to fill them.

The most visible offices, such as the county commission, are just the tip of the iceberg. There are other county offices, the city and town councils, the school board, and myriad special districts, from hospital board to cemetery board, weed boards and mosquito-control boards, water districts and television districts.

There are volunteer positions that aren’t elected but that keep the world turning nevertheless, from mentoring teen parents and teaching Sunday school, to volunteering in the nursing home and cooking funeral dinners. There are numerous civic groups and advisory boards. Those jobs are hard work, whether or not they’re paid, and when the work is spread too thin, the results are predictably bad.

It takes a large number of talented, committed individuals to keep rural communities functioning. It doesn’t make sense to limit the most talented among them to serving a few years in positions for which they may be uniquely suited. If they aren’t doing a good job, by all means, throw them out.