With a last-minute flurry of activity, the qualification deadline for the fall county elections passed last week.

As the deadline passed, the “what ifs” of political posturing and consideration quickly turn into the “what next” of campaign planning.

Adams County Election Commission Chairman Larry Gardner said this election might be the single biggest since he first became involved in the process back in 1978.

That’s an impressive statement on the interest of Adams County residents in the political process.

Seeing so many residents — and from such diverse backgrounds — stepping up to be involved in trying to make a difference is refreshing and almost certain to improve voter involvement and, ultimately, turnout.

As the political campaigns begin to ramp up publicly, we challenge each candidate to work hard to be as up front and public about their beliefs and opinions on issues facing taxpayers.

We encourage them to surround themselves with good people and demand that all of them work hard to run clean campaigns.

Too often, having more and more candidates in a given race forces some ugliness to come forth.

At some point, one of them will feel a need to separate themselves from the pack and an easy way to do that is to run from the issues and dive straight into a personality debate, drudging up dirty laundry from the past and running a negative campaign.

That may be easy to do, but it’s not what taxpayers want or need. What we need is a clean political campaign season that focuses on the issues, not the personalities.

The race has begun, but whether everyone plays fair has yet to be determined. Candidates, don’t let the voters down. Do the right thing.