For those of you who vote and have been confronted with a list of judges to vote 'yes' or 'no' on, here's a great resource to help you make a more informed opinion:

http://voteforjudges.org

I usually go straight to the grid that shows at a glance how ten bar associations rated each judge:
http://www.voteforjudges.org/2010_General_Election.pdf
(prints on 7 pages).

You can take anything you like into the poll with you, as long as it can't be construed as a political advertisement aimed at other voters.

Here's another handy one-- put in your address and then you can get a .pdf showing what your actual ballot looks like:
http://www.chicagoelections.com/voterinfo.php

Anyone have any similar resources? There are a number of candidates I know little about this time around.






(I did find the old thread but 9/10 of what was posted to it is not relevant to the current election so I decided to start fresh.)
http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/for-those-about-to-vote

Views: 378

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

All of the Cook County judges up for retention were retained.
Nobody pays attention to that guy. (It was 1990)

H3N3 said:


Kevin Conway said:
All of the Cook County judges up for retention were retained.

Yeah, some guy on here was saying there hadn't been a judge not retained since 1980 or so?
In some states, some are succeeding in bumping judges off the bench. Scary.

For some reason, I can't get the hyperlink to show, but look up NYTimes article: Ouster of Iowa Judges Sends Signal to Bench

+1.  There is also this:  http://m.chicagobar.org/jec.aspx and the Chicago Tribune usually publishes its recommendations as well.

h' said:

It's that time again.

Go to http://voteforjudges.org and print this .pdf

http://voteforjudges.org/2012_GENERAL_ELECTION_RATINGS_from_the_All...

to take with to the polls so you have a shot at an informed decision on about 2/3 of what you'll be voting for.

You can take the bar association opinions with you to the booth, but these are not objective, non-partisan organizations.  Vote the way they want you to vote if you'd like

The Chicago Bar Association has always issued its evaluations separately from the Alliance of Bar Associations.  

As to objective and non-partisan, you are right to an extent since all organizations have an agenda and interpret information in the way that fits their world view.  The bar groups do, however, do fairly extensive investigations and--other than the Tribune which I would say is also not non-partisan and objective--this is about all you will find on judges. 

Most people are fortunate to not have a lot of personal experience with judges, but if you do have to see one in his or her professional capacity, wouldn't it be good if the judge was at least found qualified or recommended by a majority of the bar associations?  Your vote matters.

One judge to look out for this election (as most voters do not do this kind of research and just vote yes to retain) - very interesting story: 

http://www.suntimes.com/15692142-761/despite-bad-reviews-shaky-ment...

Important to read that type of information, too.  This particular judge was found not recommended or not qualified by all but one of the associations in Howard's list and also not qualified by the Chicago Bar Association.
 
Sarah D. said:

One judge to look out for this election (as most voters do not do this kind of research and just vote yes to retain) - very interesting story: 

http://www.suntimes.com/15692142-761/despite-bad-reviews-shaky-ment...

This is from Uptown Update:

We suggest you review the recommendations of the bar associations at www.VoteForJudges.org.  We also suggest you read this article about Judge Cynthia Brim, who is on indefinite suspension and who was declared "legally insane" earlier this year, but who is still up for re-election (and a $181,000 salary).

I can't recall for sure but I thought the Chicago Reader regularly puts out their picks for this.  I was sure I looked at their list in 2008 at least...  Can't find it on their site yet, if it is there.  

RSS

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service