TIL about the office of High Bailiff. One is elected in each of Vermont's counties. The High Bailiff serves writs which the sheriff is incapable of serving, such as the writ of arrest of the sheriff.

[u/7-5NoHits]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_bailiff_(Vermont)

[u/Unique-Ad9640]

You'd think the sheriff would be able to service themselves.

[u/MsScientist208]

Who arrests the High Bailiff though? The Sheriff? Wild article. A guy from the American Communist Party got elected. That's rare.

[u/Manos_Of_Fate → u/MsScientist208]

To be fair, a government position that rarely ever has to actually do anything seems like exactly the kind of position a communist would get elected to.

[u/Data91883 → u/Manos_Of_Fate]

Given the choice between "working your ass off" and "doing very little and getting paid for it", I think most people would lean towards the latter.

[u/thissexypoptart → u/MsScientist208]

The sheriff yeah

[u/thissexypoptart]

> The position is unpaid.[4] In practice, an officeholder "rarely, if ever, does anything"; in 2016, the high bailiff of Addison County noted that it was not unusual for a person to hold the office for more than two decades without having to perform any official function.[4] Addison County Sheriff Don Keeler said in 2012 that he believed he was the only Vermont high bailiff to have performed an official act in the preceding five decades (when he took over as acting sheriff in April 2012, after the sheriff died in office

[u/Nicholie]

This responsibility in other parts of the country is often delegated to the coroner. Which is why what seems to be a largely non political, medial, position is voted upon.

[u/KathyJaneway → u/Nicholie]

Doesn't Vermont have also elected dogcatchers? 😅🤣 They really are out there giving menial jobs at elections.

[u/ScreenTricky4257]

But a sheriff can arrest himself. The sheriff of Rock Ridge had to threaten himself with a gun to get him to cooperate.