But it should.

The state auditor's staff of 43 people, most of them professional CPAs, probably could carry out the responsibilities of the office if it were led by someone without a background in accounting and auditing. But we believe the leader should understand what his subordinates are doing and be able to explain it to the governor.

Just as a non-lawyer cannot be elected attorney general in this state, a non-CPA should not be state auditor. The technical aspects of each office require specific knowledge that only comes from education and, ideally, experience in the field.

Incumbent Republican Auston Johnson, 55, has been state auditor since 1995 and was assistant state auditor before that. Even more important, in 27 years of governmental accounting and auditing he has tallied a near-unblemished record, quietly doing his job in a nonpartisan way, attracting little to no criticism from Republican or Democrat in state leadership.

Voters would be wise to return him to office Nov. 2.

Johnson says politics mean nothing to him after the election is over, and we believe him.

By all indications, he independently conducts audits of state agencies without regard to who sits in the governor's chair or which party holds the majority in the Legislature.

He created a fraud unit and conducted 28 fraud audits during a time when his budget and staff were cut 10 percent. He acted on a tip and discovered that forfeited property had been mishandled, leading to the recovery of about a half-million dollars in cash and property that went to the Uniform School Fund.

The Legislature has given the state auditor permission to conduct performance audits to determine if agencies are doing their jobs as promised, but it has provided no money. That should be remedied.

Johnson's opponent, Democrat Carlos Vasquez, 30, is an obviously intelligent and energetic man who feels an admirable need to be involved in community affairs. He is secretary of the Utah State Democratic Party and a Boy Scout leader. He has worked for United Parcel Service since 1995 and is a package driver.

Vasquez, the son of immigrants from Guatemala, credits his parents for his commitment to service. He has much to contribute to his Davis County community and to local and state government, if he chooses to stay active in politics. We hope he does.

However, he clearly is not qualified to be state auditor.

Johnson is doing a good job of keeping state agencies in line financially. He deserves to be re-elected.