We can predict the outcome of 50 percent of the municipal races in the cities of Lewiston and Auburn. Right now. No need to wait for Nov. 5. 

No candidate debates, speeches or ads are going to change these results.

Here we go: 

Auburn: Jonathan Labonte, mayor; Council: Ward 1, Tizz Crowley, Ward 2, Robert Hayes, Ward 3, Mary LaFontaine; School Committee: Ward 1, Michael Farrell, Ward 2, Bonnie Hayes, Ward 4, Tracey Levesque.

Lewiston: Council: Ward 2, Donald D’Auteuil, Ward 3, Nathan Libby, Ward 6, Mark Cayer; School Committee: Ward 1, Linda Scott, Ward 3, Trinh Burpee, Ward 4, James Handy, Ward 7, Thomas Shannon.

Congratulations!

How’d we do that? It’s not hard when not a single one of these candidates has an opponent.

Excluding at-large seats, seven of Auburn’s races will be filled by candidates who have no opposition; in Lewiston, it’s seven of 14. 

Perhaps that means there’s general satisfaction with how things are running — an endorsement of sorts. Perhaps.

But it’s probably more likely it means there’s no one willing to make the kind of life-altering choices needed at even the most elementary level of public service. 

Joshua Shea, at-large councilor in Auburn, knows about those life-altering choices — and decided he was no longer willing to make them. He chose not to run for re-election this year. “Being a councilor is supposed to be a very part-time job,” said Shea. “But if you are going to do it right, you can’t possibly do it in three to four hours a week.” Committees, meetings and “tons of research,” he said, made it difficult to manage his full-time job and family. 

And it didn’t help, he said, that he just didn’t feel good about having to constantly choose between the lesser of two evils, always knowing that no matter what decision he made, it would hurt someone. 

He is quick to say, though, he doesn’t regret his turn in local politics. It helped him realize that his skill set and personality type aren’t particularly suited to it. Too many things beyond his control and too little return on his investment of time and mental energy, he said, led to too much frustration. 

We acknowledge that running for local public office isn’t easy. And Democracy is messy; there are people to challenge you at every turn. And most of this takes place in public. But preserving the choice we have because we live in a democracy demands we do some hard work to keep it that way. 

In this age of social media, it’s easy to SAY you’re politically engaged, but let’s not let commenting on political blogs, putting links to interesting news stories on your Facebook page and tweeting stand in for actually performing public service.

Maybe a couch-to-council program, patterned after the highly successful couch-to-5k program, is in order. 

Kudos to those in this election, opposed or not, who are willing to make the sacrifice to serve your community. We applaud you and we highly encourage others to challenge our predictive abilities. 

It’s nice to be right, but it’s far better to have a choice.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.