In the 19th Century, many states configured counties so that a resident could get from their home to the Court House and return home in one day. Most states have been reluctant to reduce the number of existing counties, even though the Court House is only 20 miles away. By the old rule of thumb, Kansas would need about 4 counties. Many counties have a half empty Court House, a handful of employees in the County Clerk’s office and very little going on except on Court Days. In those places, they close for lunch and lock up the Court House while everyone go to lunch together.
WV has 55 counties. That’s way too many for the population. My dad many years ago was on a state commission to write a state constitutional amendment to allow the reduction of that number. I know longer remember the methods that were proposed. I also can’t remember if the amendment was written and came to a vote. I do remember there was a huge outcry over it. A lot of local rice bowls would have been broken if it had been implemented. Rice bowls involving political patronage, sleazy contracting, etc. I remember one of the jokes back then was some counties are so depopulated that if it wasn’t for the local corruption there would be no economy/jobs at all!