Does anyone here vote on judicial elections?

[True Blue Door]

I want to be as involved as I can, but every time a ballot comes with judicial candidates - at least in my experience - there is absolutely no basis for a citizen to make a decision on them. There are no candidate statements from them, no campaign websites, nothing - just a list of names that might as well be random strings of letters for all they mean anything.

My best guess - or rationalization - is that it's a release valve in case a judge is so outrageous and infamous that someone wants them thrown off an elected bench by waging a campaign against them. But I've never in my entire life run into a situation like that in my voting experience.

So does anyone here vote in judicial elections? What basis do you use, since there's no listed political affiliations, no candidate statements, and no apparent campaigns whatsoever? Or is it different where you live?

[hrmjustin]

1. Here in NYC we vote for some city and county judges but not many.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Yes, I always vote in judicial elections in my county

& for WI Supreme Court.

And I always have a pretty good idea of whom I'm voting for (or against). But then I do a lot of forensic work for the local lawyers & live in a small county, and I can see where it would be pretty hard to find out about the candidates under other circumstances.

[True Blue Door]

5. Makes sense. It's mostly people in law-related professions who would know the candidates.

But I'm not involved in the field, so I just feel stupid leaving any part of my ballot unvoted. I hate that. But you can't ethically vote with no information at all.

Same goes for any of the other races where there are no candidate statements, affiliations, or campaign websites to be found. It feels like an insult.

[sadoldgirl]

3. Yes, we have the same system here, and

it hurts me to say that I just voted them in again without any knowledge about them. Next time I will google for some info.

I see it as the same kind of problem as a recall election: Only the few with a gripe or an issue will vote, which usually is bad.

[True Blue Door]

6. Since in my case there's never any information at all, even on the internet

I have no choice but to just leave the judicial section unvoted. Feels somehow immoral, but voting with no information at all would be worse.

[Kalidurga]

4. Yes

I am going to vote for all of Gov. Mark Dayton's appointments and vote against the one I think is a Pawlenty appointment. That leaves just one I have no idea who is who and what is what. Still I have a handle on 10 out of 11 races.

I think if we are going to vote for judges they should have debates. Endorsements are one thing, but those things are very political. I would rather hear from the candidates themselves.

[True Blue Door]

10. Agreed. If it's to be elective, it should be handled like an election.

They should set out their legal philosophy and discuss prior cases before the public.

And if that would be too problematic, then it shouldn't be an elective office. The halfway point where they're elected but never say anything serves no purpose.

[Stallion]

7. Most Local Bar Associations Do Judicial Evaluations by Attorneys

We have some Democratic judges here in Dallas that are procedurally incompetent and I vote against

[True Blue Door]

12. Fits my theory that the purpose is to weed out the absolute worst.

But within a field of otherwise qualified and sane candidates, there doesn't seem to be anything to base a decision on.

In my area I can search for disciplinary actions, but other than that it's basically nothing.

[Stallion]

17. Yeah but Some of these Judges Get 8-20% Approval Ratings from their Peers

who practice in their Court. It would benefit us all to get rid of incompetent judges. Trial judges really are much less political since presumably they are applying already written law rather than voting on creating or rejecting law. The Appellate Courts are much more political and I'd rarely consider a Republican in this state. You end up creating a monster like Gregg Abbott who first proved his love of corporations in the Texas Supreme Court

[mnhtnbb]

8. Yes, we have judicial elections here in NC.

The right wingers targeted an NC Supreme Court Justice this year.

So, yes, we definitely vote on justices based upon their judicial
record--which may reflect their political beliefs.

[Butterbean]

30. I'm in NC too, and we had a TON of judicial elections this time around.

Our judicial candidates were pretty easy for me to research, though, as they all had blurbs and websites and campaign info and stuff. We had 16 candidates for one post on of them. Oy vey.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Yes. There's always a way of finding out whether a candidate is a wingnut.

Usually the endorsements are a good indication.

[demmiblue]

20. This.

Go to their webpage and click on the endorsement tab/link. It really spells it all out. For instance one of the candidates in my state has a John McCain endorsement, another has the endorsement of several unions. Problem solved!

[Blue_In_AK]

11. They don't really campaign here.

They are appointed by the governor from a small slate of candidates presented by the Judicial Council. Then they come up periodically for retention, but most of the time it's routine.

Every once in a while the right will mount a campaign against a judge for being too pro-abortion or something, but they always lose.

[PeaceNikki]

13. Here's a tip: get involved with your state and/or county Democratic Party.

I am shocked at the number of politically AWARE people there are here on DU who are not locally politically ACTIVE.

[True Blue Door]

16. But I am active. I just don't run in law circles, so I have to look things up.

And I've never found anything in 14 years of voting that would let me make an informed decision on judicial elections where I lived.

I hear from some here that their districts and states give them information, so I guess it's a matter of where you live.

[loyalsister]

14. Yes

At the county level, ours do identify with a party. There were even primaries this year.
We hold candidate forums and the candidates run grassroots campaigns, knocking on doors and distributing campaign literature. I even saw some campaign t-shirts.

The SC justices are appointed and we vote on whether or not to retain them every few years. I have to admit to usually being ill informed for those.

[pinboy3niner]

15. Have you tried googling your local Democratic Party committee website for information?

My county's Democratic Party Committee (Los Angeles) has endorsements for judicial elections posted:

http://www.lacdp.org/endorsements/

[True Blue Door]

18. Yes, thanks. No judicial endorsements from my county party.

[MNBrewer]

19. yes, but most of them are uncontested where I live.

Where there are more than one candidate I look at their websites, or google the name to find out about them.

[avebury]

21. They vote for judges in Oklahoma and it is the

worst category to try to vote on. I tried to do some research last week before I took advantage of early voting. I looked up the individual judges to see what I could find out. One was put on the bench by Mary Fallin so that was sufficient to get a not vote IMO. I looked at a website that listed recommendations. They were in favor of voting out all of the Supreme Court justices just because they issued a stay on what ended up being the botched execution that Fallin thumbed her nose at and had him executed anyway. I decided that issuing the stay on the execution was adequate to give them my vote.

[True Blue Door]

24. I don't even get that level of information.

When I look them up candidates, all I can find are rough biographical details that are no basis to make a decision on. I can basically choose them based on when they were born and where they went to college, that's it. So that section of my ballots is always left blank.

[WillowTree]

22. Of course I do.

During election season I find out who's going to be on the ballots and research them. I've gone as far as to go out to the courthouse and look up some of their rulings. These women and men will be making decisions that directly affect people's lives, so it's important to learn about who's running and have my voice heard.

It was kinda funny once when I looked to see who was running and, among them, was an old boyfriend who I hadn't seen in years. Great guy when good values and I figured that if I couldn't marry him, at least I could vote for him.

[subterranean]

23. I usually do, although most judicial races are uncontested.

I live in Washington, and find it useful to refer to the Washington Progressive Voters Guide (http://progressivevotersguide.com/) for information about the candidates. Perhaps there is something similar for your state.

[Johonny]

25. I generally don't

If they haven't bothered to fill out the voter information to put in the pamphlet then they are too lazy to get my vote. It is amazing how few candidates for these offices take the time to do the bare minimum. The same often goes for school boards and sheriff. If they don't want me to know them, I won't bother to vote for them. If they fail to reach the threshold numbers to win the office, they only have themselves to blame.

[Le Taz Hot]

26. Follow the money and

Google is your friend.

[LeftInTX]

27. Does your newspaper provide endorsements?

It sounds kinda corny, but they cover court cases etc. I had to vote for 33 district and county judges. (This does not include court of criminal appeals or state supreme court) This is an insane number.

If your newspaper endorses the Dem, then vote for the Dem. If your newspaper endorses the R, then maybe follow up with your own research or abstain.

[True Blue Door]

28. Nonpartisan offices, and I haven't found any endorsements anywhere.

[A Little Weird]

32. I have the same problem

I think the lack of available information is more of an issue in less populous places. I generally just leave them blank if I haven't been able to find info. This year, they are all running unopposed so I'm sure it doesn't make any difference.

It's not just judges either - I can't find any info on some of the school board candidates either. It's very frustrating. I make an effort to be informed but still come up empty.

[True Blue Door]

34. That's my experience to a tee.

I spent a couple of hours trying to find information about the local city council election - all I found was one thing about one guy who spoke in favor of a park. Couldn't find anyone who opposed the park, so I have no context to even use that information.

[1StrongBlackMan]

29. Here is AZ ...

we do re-certifications of elected judges.

Yes, it's merely to weed out the most egregious cases. In the 20+ years I've been here, I have yet to see one not re-certified.

Fortunately, my former employment had me working with all of the Judge's. at one time or another.

[notrightatall]

31. In WA we get a handy votor guid with candidate statements, and usually contact info.

I have called and chatted to several. Some won my vote, others did not.

Vote by mail............everyone should do it!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

33. We get tv ads and mailers, at least on some of them.

You can usually get a sense of who's further to the right by how much 'I'm the toughest on crime' rhetoric they stick in.

I don't want 'tough on crime' - that means they're wasting even more tax dollars on incarceration, which only makes people into more 'hardened' criminals. I want the candidates who are looking for ways to rehabilitate and reintegrate, not the ones who are creating lifelong felons.

[mstinamotorcity2]

35. Yes I do and so should you.

It is how it starts. Its how the deck gets stacked. always look at their websites and see who is endorsing. republican cohorts put money and brag on their judges. they usually work with people in some way in the For-Profit-Prison systems. Gov. Jan Brewer signed that ridiculous law just for her buddies to get paid off our tax dollars. Christie did it for his buddy in the halfway home business. Judges do it to Juveniles to help keep detention centers at capacity. Too many horror stories. Its one of the reasons these 3 strike laws are in effect in a lot of States. America has one of the highest prison populations in the World. Because its a business. They don't build new jails unless they expect occupancy. takes a judge to make that process happen.

[Gothmog]

36. Yes

Partisan elections are kind of dumb here and there are some real idiots on the Texas Supreme Court solely because they have a R next to their name

[csziggy]

37. Here in Florida the Florida Bar and the League of Women Voters have info

On judges - and the League of Women Voters have info on all candidates.

This year I am really glad I checked on the judges - two of the ones being voted on for retention are Republican hacks. One was the head of the Division of Elections in 2000 and helped fix the vote for GWB. Another was an assistant to the Florida Attorney General and was the lead attorney for Florida in the lawsuit trying to stop the ACA. One other really glaring distinction - compared to the other judges on the ballot this year, those two have few academic or professional credentials - instead they have political contacts.

More in my post in the Florida section on the info I found with links and quotes:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10452517

[Hassin Bin Sober]

38. Vote for the Irish names.

That's what my mom used to say.

[bemildred]

39. Always.

Generally, if I know of no obnoxious actions by the judge in question, I vote to confirm. I consider that we have such elections precisely so the judges know I can do that. The objective is not to vote the judges out all the time, that's a bad idea, the objective is to make so we CAN vote them out.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

40. Always. The NC State Board of Elections publishes...

a handy-dandy voter guide with candidate bios and statements. Based on right-wing buzzwords, I can usually discern who to vote for. I refer to the lefty leftist Indy news weekly as backup. And today I received a goodie bag from the Wake County Republican Party which closes any gaps. In this goodie bag were recommendations for:

--NC Supreme Court
--NC Court of Appeals
--Wake County District Judge
--NC House Representative
--Wake County Sheriff
--Wake County Commissioners
--NC State Senate
--Thom Tillis for U.S. Senate

Along with data sheets on:

--State Budget differences between Governors McCrory and Perdue
--Kay Hagan is No Moderate!
--The Great Work of the 2013 NC Legislature
--The Facts about Obamacare
--An overall voter guide

Damn, they are insanely organized. And well-funded.