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Paul Carpenter of the Allentown Morning Call urges Pennsylvania voters to demand reform in the wake of this week’s judicial elections. Carpenter decries the tight control by the two major political parties over the judicial election process.  He also identifies the critical issue of money in judicial elections:

I am. . .  troubled by the main source of funding for virtually all judicial candidates in the two-party system. What sort of judges are we likely to have if they take most of their campaign funding from the very lawyers who plan to argue cases before them?

Carpenter notes that change will only come if the voters get angry and demand it. And he challenges the voters to do so:

If average citizens want to similarly flex muscles to bring reforms. . . they need to get just as angry and be just as vocal as they were in the pay raise scandal. . . .

People need to start demanding a shift to the merit selection of appellate judges, vowing to vote against any legislator who fails to work toward that goal.

Legislation is pending in both houses of the legislature to implement a Merit Selection system for the three statewide appellate courts.  Clearly, confidence in the current judicial elections system is low, as fewer voters than in past years turned out to vote this week.

Pennsylvanians should make their voices heard. As Carpenter notes, that’s the only way we will achieve much needed reform.

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