judgesonmerit.org

Our campaign for Merit Selection has been grounded on the premise that it’s time to let the people of Pennsylvania decide whether or not to change how we select appellate court judges.  Our efforts are geared toward getting this question on the ballot for Pennsylvania voters. We’re not afraid to let the people weigh in on this question.  That’s why we’re so frustrated when defenders of judicial elections refuse to let the people have a chance to vote on whether or not the system is working.

Now, we’re not only frustrated, we must confess some envy.  As we’ve reported here and here, four counties in three states chose Merit Selection over judicial elections on Tuesday.  In three of these elections, voters chose to switch from elections to Merit Selection.  In the fourth, votes rejected the offer to switch from Merit Selection to judicial elections.  Detailed assessment of these campaigns can be found on Gavel Grab, but we believe the critical point is that in each of these jurisdictions, voters were given the opportunity to make a choice about how they wanted to select their judges.  As Gavel Grab noted:

The voters spoke loudly Tuesday, and they spoke their own minds. The critics of merit selection who say they have the angels of democracy on their side-who take it as an article of faith that voters prefer competitive elections for judges-need to reexamine their assumptions.

We agree.  But they need to do more than reexamine their assumptions.  They need to realize that it’s time to let the people decide how we should be choosing judges in Pennsylvania.  If they believe elections are the answer, isn’t it time to let the people vote about this?

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