On this misty morning, I taught Sophia and Evelyn about the sacred civic duty that is voting. Along the way, we learned that "handicapped-accessible" polling booths might be handicapped accessible, but not so much twin-stroller accessible. However, poll workers are more than happy to hold doors open for adorable twins and their somewhat frazzled mom.In Illinois, we are asked to vote on judges. Today's ballot held a host of judges seeking retention. I don't know how many states ask their citizens to vote on judges -- I just know I didn't have to do it when voting in Colorado. Seriously, I am not qualified to make those kinds of decisions. I know very little about our legal system, let alone which judges perform their duties adequately and which need to be booted out. However, I take the sacred civic duty that is voting seriously, and thus I try to educate myself about the judges seeking retention. One resource I turned to recently was the Chicago Bar Association. They list all of the judges seeking retention and rate them as Highly Recommended, Recommended, or Not Recommended for retention. I rely on resources such as this to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. However, I was distressed to realize that of the 12 judges not recommended for retention, 10 were women. I'm forced to wonder whether some sort of gender discrimination is at work. The CBA gives reasons for each judge it doesn't recommend (not enough experience/knowledge, inappropriate temperament, inability to process cases in a timely manner, etc -- and several were not recommended merely because they chose not to participate in the rating process). As I've said, I know nothing about this process or these judges. And yet I'm troubled by this gender disparity. I think it calls for further investigation.
8 comments:
We vote for judges here in Utah also....interesting predicament.
We vote for judges in Colorado. Maybe nobody was on the ballot when you voted here.
I have no experience with the legal system, and I never thought to check the local bar associations web site.
We also vote for the board of regents for the University of Colorado. Now there's and exciting vote. Since CU is clear on the other side of the state I have no idea what goes on.
If we could vote on anything for MSC, I'd get rid of President Tim Foster in a heartbeat, but I have no such priveledge.
P.S.
I voted early and I'm glad. CNN shows LONG lines in Denver county, and the court has denied the DNC's petition to keep the polls open late. If Bob Beauprez wins, we'll know something fishy's going on.
I only realized last night in talking with my friend Kari that there was a BACK to the ballot, so I missed most of the judges (doh!). In fact, I told Martin that it was like voting in a Soviet election -- all of the judges on the front were running unopposed. Easy choices. He laughed because he understood (he'd also missed the back of the ballot ... we're sleep-deprived).
Kari told me her old employer, a nonprofit that works with refugees, sends out judge suggestions based on their immigration stances. I'll forward it on next time if she forwards it to me.
In my county we vote for coronor and auditor and both of these run on part tickets. Hmm do I want the Republican I don't know anything about or the Democrat i don;t know anything about to be the guy who says, "Yup, he's dead alright".
We vote for judges and county hospital trustees, county extension reps. Obviously, these people mount an aggressive campaign so we know how they stand on the issues (ha!)
finished last, that is funny that a coroner would need to be partisan!
Did Rich Whitey win?
Rich Whitney did not win, but he did get 11% of the vote, which is respectable for a third-party candidate. Full disclosure: I did not end up voting for Rich Whitney. I decided that, while I do like many of his positions, this was not the time for a protest vote.
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