The word "sheriff" might conjure up something of a folksy image, but what do you really know about these elected enforcers of the law?
In the clip above from Last Week Tonight, John Oliver breaks the role of sheriff down in detail: from the good, to the bad, to the downright strange. (Seriously, some of the campaign videos and ads, including the sheriff who thought he ought to run through his past indiscretions in order to get the jump on his opponents, are impressively bizarre.)
"Too often, sheriffs are the law wherever they live, and if you're wondering, 'I don't even know who my sheriff is, do I have a bad one?' the very fact that you're asking that is kind of the problem here," Oliver concludes. "Because sheriff elections, like most down ballot elections, do not receive nearly enough attention. And often, they aren't even competitive."
Oliver goes on to explain that running against incumbent sheriffs isn't easy, which means a great number of them end up unopposed.
"Right now, we have a position that has a tremendous amount of authority, with low accountability — which is always an inevitable recipe for disaster," Oliver says. "So if there is a sheriff's race in your area this year, now would be an excellent time to start googling, 'Who the fuck is my sheriff?' and learning about them. Otherwise, you may well wind up seeing a campaign ad like this."
Cue a parody ad featuring the world's worst sheriff, which is almost too close to the bone.
Topics John Oliver Last Week Tonight Politics
