Last Tuesday, the Southside Virginia Tea Party Patriots hosted a candidates forum at the Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library. The event was open for all candidates running for public office in Prince Edward County, regardless of political party.

Only six candidates decided to attend the event and take the opportunity to meet with voters.

The event sought to include all candidates for local offices, such as the members of board of supervisors, commonwealth’s attorney, clerk of court, sheriff, treasurer, commissioner of revenue and soil and water conservation district directors.

The event was an excellent idea as voters seek to learn more about their potential representatives and have questions that they want to ask candidates before they head to the ballot boxes in November.

However, residents didn’t have the chance to meet many candidates because they failed to show up to the event.

The lack of candidate attendance was disappointing, and those who didn’t show missed out on the chance to become more visible in Prince Edward County before election day.

Even though there will be more events to meet Prince Edward citizens, why would the candidates waste an opportunity to spend time with the people they want to vote for them in November?

We commend the Southside Virginia Tea Party Patriots for holding such an appropriate, useful event before the elections and we encourage all Prince Edward candidates to attend similar events in the near future.