Once again this year several local elected seats — mostly in smaller Trumbull County communities — remain vacant, despite the opportunity to elect new officeholders in the recent Nov. 7 election.

In many cases, no one threw his or her hat into the ring in an attempt to seek office. In other cases, those who did were disqualified due to errors in the nominating petitions they circulated.

Some vacancies that still remain weeks beyond the November General Election include the Orangeville clerk; Vernon trustee and fiscal officer; Farmington fiscal officer; Bristol trustee unexpired term; and Newton Falls Board of Education; plus others. Even the mayor’s post was left open in Yankee Lake village, along with a council member.

Trumbull County Board of Elections Director Stephanie Penrose recently told our reporter that in all her years at the board of elections, openings to Yankee Lake posts always seem to exist due to lack of candidates filing to run.

When these types of vacancies exist, it is the constituency that loses.

That’s because such vacancies then are filled by vote of the remaining board members. And if, after a set length of time, the board is unable to fill the post, then the appointment is made by the county probate court judge.

Undeniably, this process triggers a deterioration to our valued civic process. To call the lack of involvement in local democracy “disappointing” is an understatement.

We suspect there are many reasons why this occurs.

In many cases, attempts to complete and file necessary candidacy paperwork fell short due to silly errors. That’s a shame. Yes, we believe candidates certainly should be able to meet the basic qualifications that include circulating a petition among registered voters. But we also consistently have argued that some tedious hoops created for candidates are overburdensome and should be reviewed and rescinded by state lawmakers.

For instance, we sometimes hear about candidates being disqualified for very minor infractions — like forgetting to sign one of the pages bearing signatures; collecting some signatures on dates before the date shown on the candidacy declaration; or failing to report the total number of signatures per page.

Disqualification of otherwise worthy candidates seeking to serve their community for such minor reasons is utterly ridiculous.

Of course, in other cases, we realize the lack of candidates stems from basic apathy. While apathy toward public service in local government might be a consistent problem, we suspect public service might be even less palatable these days, based on the growing political divide and backlash toward political figures in our country.

We must never allow these types of issues to affect our democracy.

If the problem is so persistent in communities like Yankee Lake, then perhaps it is time for the electorate in tiny communities to explore dissolution and merging with neighboring townships. Yankee Lake village, for instance, has a population of just 73! We suspect the property and residency would be welcomed with open arms into neighboring Brookfield Township. Again, no one wins with a, let’s just say, less-than-robust democratic process.

Either way, we call on state lawmakers to take a hard look at some of the onerous rules and regulations of petition handling and loosen them, as well as leaving the door open a crack for candidates to fix their errors within a given time period once they’re discovered.

If nothing is done, more potentially strong public servants will spare themselves the nominating grief, and full participatory democracy will continue to crumble in our community.