Tools to Help you Decide if Judges on Your Ballot Should be Retained

Through that whole process you just described, not once did I hear you say anything about political affiliation.

And I can tell you, we get a lot of inquiries from voters asking, well, how do I know what party this judge is from? But I think this is really important.

As you noted, you're not getting the name of the judges, you're getting an ID number.

And so that really, I think, lends to the credibility of your process.

So what the commission is doing, at no point is this review ever partisan.

Is that correct?

That is correct, Gina.

We don't know, as commissioners, we don't know who a judge is sometimes until the final vote's completed.

We don't get the list of names.

On the smaller courts, you can kind of guess.

But when you get a huge bench like Maricopa County, which has over 100 Superior Court judges, we have no idea who they are.

There are 49 Maricopa County Superior Court judges will be on your ballot if you live in Maricopa County.

10 in Pima County, 6 in Pinal County, and 2 in Coconino County right now.

We don't know their affiliation.

We don't know which governor appointed them.

We don't know that until the unveil after the vote has been taken.

Now, we could know earlier...

If the commission by majority vote votes to call a judge that's up for retention or justice up for retention, we can send a letter asking for some explanation for some areas we saw some problems in their survey data or some of the public testimonies or letters that we have received.

And that judge or justice can choose a number of doors to respond.

One, they can choose not to respond to the commission.

Bad choice, I will tell you.

Historically, that has not gone well for them.

They can choose to respond to our detailed questions in writing.

All this is done in an executive session, by the way.

Or they can choose just to come in and sit in front of the commission, in front of the 34 commissioners, and answer questions in executive session.

Through that whole process you just described, not once did I hear you say anything about political affiliation.

And I can tell you, we get a lot of inquiries from voters asking, well, how do I know what party this judge is from? But I think this is really important.

As you noted, you're not getting the name of the judges, you're getting an ID number.

And so that really, I think, lends to the credibility of your process.

So what the commission is doing, at no point is this review ever partisan.

Is that correct?

That is correct, Gina.

We don't know, as commissioners, we don't know who a judge is sometimes until the final vote's completed.

We don't get the list of names.

On the smaller courts, you can kind of guess.

But when you get a huge bench like Maricopa County, which has over 100 Superior Court judges, we have no idea who they are.

There are 49 Maricopa County Superior Court judges will be on your ballot if you live in Maricopa County.

10 in Pima County, 6 in Pinal County, and 2 in Coconino County right now.

We don't know their affiliation.

We don't know which governor appointed them.

We don't know that until the unveil after the vote has been taken.

Now, we could know earlier...

If the commission by majority vote votes to call a judge that's up for retention or justice up for retention, we can send a letter asking for some explanation for some areas we saw some problems in their survey data or some of the public testimonies or letters that we have received.

And that judge or justice can choose a number of doors to respond.

One, they can choose not to respond to the commission.

Bad choice, I will tell you.

Historically, that has not gone well for them.

They can choose to respond to our detailed questions in writing.

All this is done in an executive session, by the way.

Or they can choose just to come in and sit in front of the commission, in front of the 34 commissioners, and answer questions in executive session.