Who Are All These Judges On My Ballot?!? 2024 Edition

TL;DR: There are a lot of judges on your ballot this November, including 7 KS Court of Appeals judges and lots of district court judges. Check out the KS Bar Association survey results for the Kansas Court of Appeals and the Johnson County Bar Association website when they publish their survey results later this month.

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The 2024 election will be here before you know it. Have you taken a look at your ballot yet? (If not, what are you waiting for, go to ksballot.org and check it out!). 

See that long list of judges at the bottom of the ballot? There are 20 in Johnson County - 7 for the Court of Appeals and 13 for the Johnson County District Court  - and this election voters will be asked to retain each one of these judges.

In an election cycle where it feels like we are flooded with information about every other candidate, this part of the ballot feels a little…lacking. How am I supposed to know whether or not each one of these 20 judges is doing a good job? Who are these people anyway? 

In an effort to try to answer some of these questions, Mainstream Civic Engagement, the League of Women Voters of Johnson County, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Upsilon Rho Omega Chapter, hosted four judges for an educational panel on October 3. From the Kansas Court of Appeals we heard from Chief Judge Karen Arnold-Burger and Judge Sarah E. Warner, and from the Johnson County District Court we were joined by Chief Judge J. Charles Droege and Judge Brenda Cameron. You can watch the full recording here.

Before diving into the question of if I should vote to retain these judges, how do judges even get appointed? And why do we have to vote to retain them?

Each of the 14 Kansas Court of Appeals judges are appointed through a merit-based process that includes a rigorous investigation into their background, education, professional experience, and more. The nonpartisan nominating commission is made up of lawyers and nonlawyers from around the state. After their review, the commission recommends three candidates to the Governor, who then selects one candidate for the open seat. Unlike other appointed state judges, the Court of Appeals judges must then be confirmed by the Kansas Senate.

District Courts either appoint their judges through a similar process (merit districts) or through direct elections. In merit districts like Johnson County, judges are then placed on the ballot for retention votes every four years. You can find a brief overview of this process here.

In summary, judges are carefully selected by a nonpartisan commission of their peers and community members long before their name ever appears on your ballot. And then you, as a voter who interacts with the courts in various ways, are basically given the power to do a semi-regular job review through your retention vote. It’s kind of a big responsibility.

But I don’t know anything about these judges or how they’re doing. How do I know how to vote?

Mainstream Civic Engagement and our partners are not making recommendations this year on judge retention. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have access to the resources and opinions you need to make an informed decision. And it definitely doesn’t mean you should skip this section, or as many default to doing, vote no for everyone just because you don’t know anything about the judges on your ballot.

As the judges in our educational forum explained, it’s a matter of trusting a system with an in-depth and impartial selection process. From Kansas Court of Appeals Chief Judge Karen Arnold-Burger: “These nominating commissions did a lot of the work for you. When you go before a nominating commission, they’re looking at everything about you. They’re looking at your grades in schools, they’re looking at how you’ve done as an attorney. They’re contacting not only the attorneys you practiced with, but attorneys you practiced against to see what your reputation is. The person wouldn’t have gotten this position if they didn’t meet those standards.”

“Put yourself in a position of having a job that you do well and are good at and people are able to decide if you get to keep your job or not. And people decided that because they don’t know a lot about you that they’ll vote no, you shouldn’t be able to keep your job. What that’s going to result in is very talented judges losing their jobs and people not willing to give up their successful private practice to become judges…Voting no can have some long-term consequences.” 

And while that may provide peace of mind for many voters, you might find yourself asking what happens to judges who have held their position for a long time and may have changed since being appointed. As Judge Brenda Cameron, who also sits on the Commission on Judicial Conduct, explains, there's also an accountability and ethics mechanism with the power to provide consequences for judges who receive complaints about their conduct. Judicial discipline reports are also published and publicly available. According to Cameron, judges who are found in violation often self-select not to apply for retention, again making the job easier for voters to choose to retain judges who have not received multiple complaints.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't vote no if you have heard of a judge that isn't make fair and impartial decisions. When deciding how to vote, Judge Sarah E. Warner of the Kansas Court of Appeals had this advice: “People don’t become a judge for the fame and fortune. They do it because they have an aptitude for the law and a love of the law and a passion for fairness. If you haven’t heard anything that gives you pause about any judges, then that means that they’re doing their job well. That means that they’re deciding cases fairly and based on the facts of the law.” 

Ok, so judges are people too. But I don’t want to just blindly vote for them. What should I do now?

This question comes up every time a ballot has a judge’s name on it. It’s one of the most common questions we get at Mainstream – how should I vote on judicial retention? 

One of the solutions may sound pretty basic, but it’s not exactly fast or easy. We need to understand more about our judicial system in order to have confidence in the judges leading it. Chief Judge J. Charles Droege of the Johnson County District Court sees civic engagement as one of the most important roles for Kansas judges. “Our judges are very involved in the community. We start at the grassroots, getting people to understand the process and sort of a civics lesson is one of the ways we do that. If anyone wants a judge to speak to your group, just call us.”

For the 2024 election though, there are faster ways to take a deep dive into learning more about the judges on the ballot. Here are additional resources recommended by the panel of judges:

So I guess I have some homework to do. When is the election again and what was that link for previewing my ballot?

We’re so glad you asked! Here are some basic things you should do on or before election day on November 5.

  • Check your registration here. You have until October 15 to register, so make sure anyone in your life who may not be registered or who will turn 18 before election day is registered now!
  • Preview your ballot at KSBallot.org (English) or KSBoleta.org (Spanish). Just enter your address and you’ll get great info on every candidate who will appear on your ballot. You can also use this great resource from our partners at the League of Women Voters to learn more about your candidates.
  • Make your voting plan. You can request an advance ballot up until Oct 29 and early in-person voting begins on Oct 16.
  • Help us reach Kansas voters by signing up for a Get Out The Vote phonebank here or join us at our candidate and election events.
  • Most importantly, VOTE! This is a critical election year, so don’t sit it out. 

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published this page in Blog 2024-10-04 13:17:11 -0500
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