Pushing Democracy In Kansas
October 16, 2008
Earlier this week, the Kansas City Star provides an update on a November ballot initiative in bellwether Johnson County. The initiative would replace the secret selection of judges – aka “merit” selection – with democratic elections. Opponents of democratic judicial elections like Malia Reddick of the American Judicature Society fear that Johnson County’s vote:
… could have a ripple effect. It could be used as evidence that voters are unhappy with merit selection around the country.
The article points out that merit selection systems are typically dominated by lawyers and leave no room for public input. In Johnson County, the vote of the judicial selection committee is held in secret. The means all the politics that goes into picking judges just gets moved behind closed doors, rather than out in the open as with democratic elections.