These developments have amplified the problems presented by partisan judicial races. In these elections, it is easier for special interests to spend money influencing the courts. Special interests in states with nonpartisan elections may face greater difficulty in swaying voters with independent political ads.
Two states—Georgia and Washington—that had never experienced high-profile judicial races saw their elections overwhelmed with money from corporate special interests. But again the incumbent judge won, despite being outspent. Though special interests have had more success in other states, these two examples suggest that special interests might find it harder to influence nonpartisan judicial elections, at least in states where voters are accustomed to low-key, inexpensive judicial races.
Partisan primaries lead to judicial candidates who are clearly on the side of one interest group or another, and once on the bench, judges in states with expensive judicial races are dependent on special interests for their reelection.
This leads to more partisanship on the bench—a court with clear conservative and liberal factions. If judges were deciding cases based on the law, one would expect that some cases would favor the plaintiff and some the defendant. That is not the case, however, in states with partisan nominating processes. Additionally, partisan elections may affect the quality of jurists.
Instead, voters tend to vote for the judicial candidates from the party with which they are affiliated. The New York Times editorial board agrees that partisan nominating processes can lead to lower-quality judges:. Requiring would-be judges to cozy up to party leaders and raise large sums from special interests eager to influence their decisions seriously damages the efficacy and credibility of the judiciary. It discourages many highly qualified lawyers from aspiring to the bench. Bitter campaigns — replete with nasty attack ads — make it much harder for judges to work together on the bench and much harder for citizens to trust the impartiality of the system.
Partisan politics have no place in judicial races. More than other politicians, judges are expected to be true to the law, not to political parties or campaign contributors. Michele L. Sample 2. Sample 3. Partisan election means an election where the candidates are nominated or elected as representing a political party.
It includes primary or run -off elections which are intended to determine the party 's candidate. Partisan election means an election in which the ballot may, under applicable election laws , designate the political party or political organization to which a candidate belongs or which the candidate is representing in the election , regardless of whether the ballot for the election makes such designation with respect to any or every candidate.
Examples of Partisan election in a sentence Some states in total 7 have implemented a Partisan election as the mode of selection, where the candidates are listed on the ballot along with a label designating the political party's ballot on which they are running; in other states judges are not affiliated with a political party on the ballot for example the so called Non-partisan and Missouri Plan selection methods.
Privacy policy About Ballotpedia Disclaimers Login. Nonpartisan elections. Michigan-Ohio method. Assisted appointment. Bar-controlled commission. Governor-controlled commission. Hybrid commission.
Legislative elections. Gubernatorial appointment. Using a dataset of state high court opinions, we construct objective measures for three aspects of judicial performance: effort, skill and independence. The measures permit a test of the relationship between performance and the four primary methods of state high court judge selection: partisan election, non-partisan election, merit plan, and appointment. The empirical results do not show appointed judges performing at a higher level than their elected counterparts.
Appointed judges write higher quality opinions than elected judges do, but elected judges write many more opinions, and the evidence suggests that the large quantity difference makes up for the small quality difference.
In addition, elected judges do not appear less independent than appointed judges. The results suggest that elected judges are more focused on providing service to the voters that is, they behave like politicians , whereas appointed judges are more focused on their long-term legacy as creators of precedent that is, they behave like professionals.
Broadly speaking, there are two mechanisms by which elections might produce faithful representation on the part of elected officials. The first is selection. Ideally, competitive elections allow voters to choose candidates whose preferences most closely mirror their own Downs , Fearon In the selection account, the presence of challengers facilitates a closer match between voters and their representatives through the provision of alternatives.
The second mechanism is the incentive effect of elections Barro , Ferejohn In addition, in states with partisan judicial elections it is more likely that higher judgments will be recovered by plaintiffs bringing suit against out-of-state corporations, particularly where the poverty level of the state is high, and there is great income inequality in the state.
What's on your ballot? Jump to: navigation , search. Methods of judicial selection. Choose your state West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source. Hidden category: Pages with reference errors.
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Bar-controlled commission. Governor-controlled commission.
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