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An editorial in the News & Record of Greensboro, NC highlights one of the big problems with judicial elections: voters don’t have a lot of information about the candidates running for the bench.  The editorial makes its point by demonstrating how much people know about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as opposed to the North Carolina Supreme Court justices they presumably voted for:

It’s a safe bet that most Americans know at least a few basic things about Sonia Sotomayor. . . .

In contrast, how many North Carolinians could name even one member of their state Supreme Court?

Probably very few, even though the voters elected each of the court’s seven justices. Judicial elections just don’t generate much interest. As a result, voters choose North Carolina’s Supreme Court justices, and judges at lower levels of the court system, generally with less information about the candidates than they have about someone nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, for whom they can’t vote.

This lack of information, which plagues all states that elect judges, is a problem because conscientious voters crave information on which to base decisions.  Instead, judicial elections provide them with party affilitation, county of residence and some yard-sign or television slogans which usually provide no guidance in determining if someone will make a good judge.

This is just one of many reasons judicial elections don’t make sense.

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