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Thursday, October 02, 2008

Ind. Courts - Information about appellate jurists on the November ballot

At the Commission on Courts meeting August 28th, as noted in this Sept. 1st ILB entry:

Judges Terry Crone and Cale Bradford appeared before the Commission on Courts to discuss with legislators what the judiciary is doing to insure a more informed electorate insofar as information for the voters asked to vote "yes" or "no" on this November's ballot re the retention of appellate judges is concerned.
This website is now available, although apparently has not yet been announced. Access it here. I expect the announcement will come shortly, as absentee voting begins Monday, Oct. 6th.

Here is the website the ILB created in 2006 to provided needed information on the judges running for retention in the 2006 election. Check out the section of that website headed "Voting to Retain or Reject Indiana Appellate Judges and Justices," which links to several Res Gestae articles I have written explaining that "voters need information about judges' records in order to make informed decisions and to make the retention vote meaningful." Included is this quote from the 2005 article:

As shown in the tables, in 2006 one Supreme Court justice and five Court of Appeals judges will be up for retention, should they so choose. In 2008, as the facts stand now, the Tax Court judge, one Court of Appeals judge and three Supreme Court justices may be on the ballot. It is up to the state and local bar associations, the media, and the League of Women Voters and similar civic groups, to start now to assure that the citizenry will have the information they need to make their votes on retention meaningful.
The new Court site on those up for retention in 2008 contributes to meeting this need. The information will be enhanced when the Indiana State Bar Association evaluations are available. But more information is needed, such as newspaper articles featuring appropriate questions to the judges, so that voters may compare and contrast the answers.

And the ILB hopes to add, within the next few days, an "at a glance" table of relevant information about the candidates for retention.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 2, 2008 08:12 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Judicial Retention