Wow, wotta ballot !

[230RN]

Fifteen inches of light cardboard or heavy peper covered on one side, halfway covered on the other side with issues.

Over forty of them. Judicial appointments, amendments to the State constitution, building heights around the old now-empty hospital, parents' school choices, hunting predators like lynx and mountain lions and such....

Thankfully a very detailed and fair-minded 110 page booklet was provided explaining the pros and cons and impacts of each issue.  Took me over two hours to go over it in detail and I still have to go over the judicial appointments.

The best one can do with the judges is to compare the percentages of lawyers who think the judge meets the requirements.  Most of them are over "70%," whatever that means. I shall probably implement my rule of okaying them if I don't know anything about them.  I should have asked each of them by mail the definitions of "abridged" in the First Amendment and "infringed" in the Second Amendment but I would bet that any answers would be full of legal BS which don't answer the question without an actual case.

<wry grin>

Well, I guess I'll just vote "Retain in Office" for the 15 judges on the ballot and forgive myself for not digging deeper on that one.  My mother was the only one who ever thought I was perfect.

Whew. 

Terry, 230RN

[Ben]

I hate those county level positions. Idaho is severely lacking on the voter pamphlet side on pretty much everything, but for Federal and State people and issues, I can always find information with a little interwebz digging. With county positions, especially someone with a common name, it's nearly impossible to find anything. Half the time I just do eenie meenie miney moe.

[cordex]

I tend to not vote if there is no opposing candidate, and vote to remove judges whenever I don’t have better information.

The only race I wasn’t entirely sure about this year was school board, so I reached out to all the candidates. Pretty sure I know what I’m going to do there.

[MillCreek]

Washington state does an excellent voters pamphlet for the state level and county level positions.  I sat down yesterday and filled out the ballot.

[Brad Johnson]

We voted yesterday. Our ballots were blessedly brief, more so than the past few years. Modest wait. Overheard someone in line say they'd come on Monday (first day of early voting) and the line was more than 100 deep.

Brad

[zahc]

I follow the "vote to remove all judges" strategy too. Basically judges always get re-elected, usually with a 2/3 or so margin. So the logic is that bad judges never get voted out because people just voting yes with no information. I do my part by voting no for every single judge, so hopefully maybe the worst judge of the lot will actually get voted out. As far as I can tell it's still not enough because judges hardly ever get voted out anyway.

Other than that, pretty much you have to go talk to people. You can't believe what you see in the media and you can't believe what the politicians themselves say. There's a local guy with very slimy marketing materials that are basically opposite of what his revealed stances are, but he's just being dishonest to try to get votes. I could have easily fallen for it. Unless you manage to see a good debate, or talk to them personally at an event or something, you have no idea.

[HankB]

Here in TX, I early voted on 10/21, the first day. Good turnout. The ballot was easy to fill out - about 2/3 of the down ballot "choices" were judicial positions - like Judge of the Probate Court - with D's running unopposed. (I live in Travis County, just outside Austin, which is referred to as "Moscow on the Colorado.")

My philosophy when someone is running unopposed is to leave that spot blank - if they see that the unopposed candidates get significantly fewer votes than the total cast, MAYBE they'll realize the people in those positions aren't really supported. Or MAYBE the R's will see few votes for some of those positions and conclude they're vulnerable, and run someone against them next time.

Or maybe I'm just delusional by hoping good things might eventually happen in a D stronghold like Travis County, TX. 

[Ben]

I'm doing my early voting when I hit the city next Tuesday. My county has three sites set up, and mine is the Elk's Lodge, which is ginormous so there's never a wait.

At least usually. I've been hearing all kinds of news from around the country this year that early voting numbers are way up, with much bigger numbers than usual for Republicans, which I guess is unusual compared to normal. As much as I'm now in favor of "Make Election Day a holiday, and that's your day to vote.", I'm glad to see Rs fighting fire with fire on the early voting thing.

[grampster]

We've already voted and turned in our ballots at the township office.  I never vote for any non opposed candidates.  As for judges, the unspoken rule in the legal community around here is that no one is supposed to run against an incumbent judge.

[230RN]

We've already voted and turned in our ballots at the township office.  I never vote for any non opposed candidates.  As for judges, the unspoken rule in the legal community around here is that no one is supposed to run against an incumbent judge.

^ Interesting...  And thanks for that tidbit. (Reading between the lines, I can see how a lawyer running against a judge and losing might prejudice the winning judge against that lawyer's cases in future.  Yup.  Makes sense.)

But as of this AM, I still haven't filled in any blanks on the 15 Judges and on seeing some of the responses above, I called the local League of Women Voters in Jefferson County (which is easy to contact, I have found in the past*) and asked if leaving choices blank would invalidate my ballot.  Her answer was no, it would not invalidate the ballot.

Edited to add:  Your situation may vary, so do your own checking.

So I guess I don't have to feel guilty about choosing "Retain" or "Not Retain" on the judges.  I hope I can rely on SCOTUS' recent history, language, and tradition concept to keep our local judges in line with Constitutional issues instead of grilling them on "abridge" (as in 1A) and "infringe" (as in 2A).

With that cop-out assuaging my guilt, I will drop-box the ballot tomorrow with all fifteen judicial choices blank.  At least, as has been indirectly pointed out, I won't be encouraging any stinko pinko judges.

Terry, 230RN

* A real live human lady answered within three rings.  Exclamation point !!!!

[230RN]

Here in TX, I early voted on 10/21, the first day. Good turnout. The ballot was easy to fill out - about 2/3 of the down ballot "choices" were judicial positions - like Judge of the Probate Court - with D's running unopposed. (I live in Travis County, just outside Austin, which is referred to as "Moscow on the Colorado.")

My philosophy when someone is running unopposed is to leave that spot blank - if they see that the unopposed candidates get significantly fewer votes than the total cast, MAYBE they'll realize the people in those positions aren't really supported. Or MAYBE the R's will see few votes for some of those positions and conclude they're vulnerable, and run someone against them next time.

Or maybe I'm just delusional by hoping good things might eventually happen in a D stronghold like Travis County, TX. 

Maybe you is delusional and maybe you ain't, but that "vulnerability by the low vote count" is a fun thought to go to bed with.  Somebody please send that concept to the RNC, AKA "The Dumb Party,"

Financing an "unwinnable" campaign with a "call for volunteers" candidate just might turn out to be worth it.

Terry, 230RN

[Bogie]

So, how many of y'all were first-time early voters?
 
I'm hearing that the polling places here in the STL all have lines...

[JTHunter]

In this area, judges running for retention do NOT have "party affiliation" listed.  Considering the kind of "democrat stronghold" (stranglehold?) ILL-ANNOY is, I never vote for retention of any of them.

[230RN]

In this area, judges running for retention do NOT have "party affiliation" listed.  Co9nsidering the kind of "democrat stronghold" (stranglehold?) ILL-ANNOY is, I never vote for retention of any of them.

Of course they don't usually list Party affiliations.  Judges are supposed to be neutral in all respects. < Terry makes joke, ha-ha.

Terry, 230RN

[230RN]

Well, I finally got out and dropped it in the ballot box at the city center.

Now it's up to you guys and gals.

Remember, your legitimate vote may cancel out a fraudulent vote from the other side.  If there are any.

[Cliffh]

DW and I voted on the 3rd day of early voting.  The polling place was the county library.  Parking lot has spaces for maybe 30 cars, it was full.  The street the library's on is a 2 lane road with no sidewalks.  Cars were parked in the dirt on both sides of the street for 3 blocks in one direction and 4 blocks the other direction.  The line was ~1 hour long, but we didn't have to wait.  DW uses a walker, the gent behind us offered to save our place in line while she/we stood in the shade (I planned to get her situated and get back in line) so we were headed in that direction when a worker came out to escort us inside.  They don't have the elderly or infirm stand in line.  Felt bad about bypassing the entire line.

The ballot itself took some time to fill out.  It was heavy paper, full page on the front, 1/2 page on the back side.  You had to fill in the oblong next to your candidates name using a blue or black pen.  Stay inside the lines!  And don't leave any white spots!  Would have been easier if they'd offered a "vote for one party" option, instead you had to choose each candidate separately.  After it was filled out, it was run through a scanner.

The back side was all county level, every one of them unopposed republicans.

[T.O.M.]

For those of you in retain/don't retain judge states, who does the appointment in the first place.  Here in Ohio, the only judicial appointments are to fill vacant seats when a judge leaves prior to an election.  Other than that, all judges are elected.  Not sure which is better, honestly.  With elections, we get a lot of judges who are more politician than knowledgeable attorney, meaning they often do what will help win the next election, not what may be legally correct.   It also means that the same legal issues get decided differently in different counties because of political leanings of those counties...

[K Frame]

Judges in Virginia are selected through legislative election.

IOW, the Virginia legislature selects the judges.

https://dls.virginia.gov/pubs/legisguidejudicselect.pdf#:~:text=Judges%20of%20the%20general%20district%20courts%20and%20judges,the%20bench%20by%20a%20process%20of%20legislative%20election.


Were Ohio like Virginia, and given your background, you might have had a better chance of being elected a judge, TOM, instead of Hooters McBoobs.

[230RN]

"Hooters McBoobs."

Snorted snot over that one.  Gotta remember it.

Cliffh's remarks about being escorted in because of disability is why I started doing mail-in voting years ago, despite my misgivings about it.  My ballot, as mentioned, was also a long page and a half of issues and I filled it out on my coffee table with music from KVOD.  Went to the bathroom only twice.

I am often amazed at the help I get in day-to-day matters when folks realize I'm disabled.  I'm getting used to that, but my fundamental outlook is "The more help I get, the more help I'll need."   Still, I realize how helping me makes people feel good.

Mail-in ballots are also good in terms of being able to research individual issues and liesurely fill in the little circles.  My only concern is that my signature varies from year to year, but I keep getting ballots on every --even minor --issues, so I guess that's OK.

T.O.M.'s comments about electing versus appointing Judges reminded me about one of my pet peeves --where choosing Senators was done by popular vote instead of being selected by the State legislatures.  It's another glorification of "democracy = popular vote" which disrupts the balance between "democracy" versus "republic" which the Inventors tried so hard to maintain.  Nowadays we seem to overdo "democracy" in favor of "republic" because "democracy" is gooder.  The ongoing attempted destruction of the Electoral College concept is another example of "democracy is gooder."

Kinda rambly, but I only had one cuppa so far today.

"Hooters McBoobs." 

Terry, 230RN

[K Frame]

You know, I didn't realize it until you mentioned it, Terry, but that's the first time I've ever referred to TOM's opponent by that name on the open boards. I always called her that when we were private messaging.

Dang.

If you had seen her campaign picture from back then you'd understand why I picked that name.

But now we have to refer to her as the Honorable Hooters McBoobs.

[HankB]

. . . If you had seen her campaign picture from back then you'd understand why I picked that name.   . . .

This is useless without a picture . . . or at least a link to a picture.

[JTHunter]

Here in ILL-ANNOY, we're "advised" NOT to retain judges as they are all "blue".
By not retaining them, they have to run for re-election which might open up some "cracks" in the facade. 

[K Frame]

This is useless without a picture . . . or at least a link to a picture.

Yeah, I can't even remember her name. That was what, 3, 4 years ago now that TOM was up for election?

Ah, here we go... the Honorable Hooters McBoobs...

https://lickingcounty.gov/depts/probate/default.htm

Unfortunately I can't find the pictures from back then. They were more... demonstrative as to why I named her Hooters McBoobs...

Or was it Boobs McHooters?

I can't remember. Either way works.

[230RN]

I found this after I'd dropped off my ballot:

https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2024/
v10/23/colorado-judge-retention-election

[Excerpted.]

How to make an informed decision on Colorado's judges this election

by Alayna Alvarez

Colorado voters will decide this November which judges and justices stay on the bench in what's called a retention election.

Why it matters: Local judges hold huge power over our daily lives, handling matters from neighbor disputes to criminal cases that shape our communities and legal systems.

To keep their jobs, they need to receive a simple majority of yes votes. If they don't, they must step down, beginning the process of filling their position

State of play: Of 116 judges [in the entire State -Terry] on the ballot this year, including three Supreme Court justices, only one — Garfield County's Angela Roff — didn't make the cut in performance reviews. [See REF -Terry]

To keep their jobs, they need to receive a simple majority of yes votes. If they don't, they must step down, beginning the process of filling their position.

How it works: Each of Colorado's 22 judicial districts has evaluation commissions that review the judges' work.

These commissions evaluate everything from a judge's legal smarts and temperament to how fairly they treat people in their courtroom.

Reality check: Colorado voters rarely show judges the door. Since 1990, only five judges have lost their seats, according to the Colorado Judicial Institute.
[End of excerpts]

Terry, 230RN

REF (Angela Roff):
https://judicialperformance.colorado.gov/roff-angela-m-2024-evaluation

[T.O.M.]

Mike, I looked for pictures.  It appeared that Judge Hooters scrubbed her social media.  See, last spring her husband left her for her campaign manager.  Seems that during the campaign, she was pressing the flesh...and so was he!  He resigned his city council post so he and the new chich could shack up in a new city, out of the reach of the ex wife. 

Irony that while she was waving around pictures of her traditional family, he was tagging the one who designed the photos.