Voting for judges is one of your toughest ballot tasks. What to consider when making your choices
Finding information about the many judicial candidates on your ballot can be tricky. On Imperfect Paradise, reporter Cato Hernández walks you through races in L.A. and Orange counties and shares important tips from a former judge.
Two Orange County judgeships are up for election June 2 and choosing for whom to vote is one of the hardest jobs facing voters. Here, we offer you a guide on how to do just that — and a look at the candidates on the ballot in Orange County.
Superior Court judges oversee courtroom proceedings and trials across all of Orange County. There are more than 100 judges in the court system. These trials cover everything having to do with state and local laws, including family law (such as child custody and divorces), landlord and tenant cases, contract disputes, thefts, felony murder, probate (distributing a person’s possessions after death) and small claims.
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A judge’s job is to act as court referee:
If the law is clear on a given issue, judges must stick to it regardless of how they personally feel. In other cases, laws may be ambiguous, and that’s when a judge has to issue their own interpretation of the law. Judges also have a fair amount of discretion when it comes to handing down penalties, such as the length of a sentence for a criminal conviction or the payment sum for a civil case. That's where it really starts to matter who is in the seat.
Your traffic ticket dispute. Or your child custody case. Or that time you served on a jury. If you’ve never had to interact with the court system, you’ve definitely heard of a case the O.C. Superior Court has handled: think of the O.C. snitch scandal, Angels pitcher Tyler Skagg's wrongful-death trial or the state’s lawsuit against Huntington Beach over voter ID.
This is because of California law. Superior Court judges get the job either through governor appointment or winning an election. They serve six-year terms, but they don’t always have to face reelection when that time is up.
A seat only appears on your ballot in certain situations. The most common is when there are at least two challengers vying for an office. Seats can also show up when there’s a single candidate that’s not the incumbent. Judges who file reelection paperwork but go unchallenged never appear on the ballot at all — they automatically get another term. In general, we usually only have a handful of judges to choose in each election.
If you’re not totally comfortable with the idea of electing judges, you’re not alone. While some states select judges differently, California’s done it this way for a long time. Proposals to stop electing judges here haven’t succeeded.
Lots of people have questioned whether it’s a good idea to elect our judiciary — does it cause judges to worry more about being popular instead of making the right decisions in cases? Some critics also point to L.A. County’s 2006 judicial elections, in which a well-respected sitting judge who had served on the court for over 20 years unexpectedly lost her seat to a bagel shop owner with much less legal experience who spent way more money on campaign advertising.
It depends on how much time you want to commit. You can:
If you have a case, you can see what other people think of your assigned judge. The Robing Room is like Yelp reviews for the court system — but take them with a grain of salt. Some Superior Court judges have few reviews, if any. Also, since anyone can post, many of the ratings aren’t considered fair as a formal evaluation.
Evaluating judicial candidates is notoriously hard. This is really not an easy task for the average voter. Since many candidates are wary of politicizing judgeships, they don’t spend a lot of money on campaign advertising, which makes it hard to find out who they are or what they stand for. Plus, these are nonpartisan seats, so you don’t have the option of just voting for candidates who identify as a member of the party with whom you’re registered.
But there are a few pieces of information you can look at to help with your decision. Stuart Rice, a retired L.A. County Superior Court judge and a past president of the California Judges Association, shared his tips with LAist here:
This is the main professional association for Orange County’s legal community. During every election, OCBA evaluates judicial candidates. (You can find the ratings for this election cycle here and we've included them in our guide below.) The ratings are one of the only ways for a voter without a legal background to assess whether a candidate is qualified for the bench.
OCBA's judiciary committee is a group of over 30 attorneys who have been in practice at least 10 years. They give candidates one of four ratings: exceptionally well qualified, well qualified, qualified or not qualified.
The ratings can be a useful way to evaluate a candidate because they’re supposed to take temperament and personality into account in addition to legal ability. That ties in to what Rice said is most important for a candidate to have: proper judicial demeanor.
“To me, it means you treat everybody the same. You treat everybody with respect. You treat everybody with dignity. You’re impartial,” he said. “You set a tone in that courtroom so that the litigants don’t feel like they’re in an environment where they can be yelling at each other in the courtroom.”
Keep in mind, these ratings are the opinion of a private, volunteer membership group unaffiliated with the state bar. Other groups may find candidates more or less qualified.
These are nonpartisan seats, but you’ll still see endorsements from newspapers, politicians and issue-based organizations, just like any political contest. If there’s an organization you trust, their endorsement might tip the scales for you.
The role of political parties in society is so strong that you may notice political party endorsements. According to Rice, that’s because the courts have become more political in recent elections. Take L.A., for example.
“ The candidates, despite this being a non-partisan race, really want to get the endorsement of the Democratic Party,” Rice said. “That's because L.A. is overwhelmingly democratic.”
The only requirement for being a judge is to have at least 10 years in one of two paths: being authorized to practice law in California (usually by passing the bar exam) or serving as a judge in the state. That means you might find a wide range of legal experience among candidates. If they were a judge before or have significant trial experience, that’s a big clue as to how prepared they may be for the job on Day 1. Having a history as a prosecutor or defense attorney can also tell you they’ve had a lot of experience in court and give you an idea of their potential approach to criminal justice issues.
Here are some common job titles you may see on the ballot and what they mean:
Campaign websites can give you more detailed information about a candidate’s background, mission and experience. Someone serious about their campaign will have a website, Rice said. Pay attention to how sophisticated it is and what they choose to say about themselves.
“ They may say, 'Vote for me. I’m the one that’s gonna change the world,'” Rice said. “Well, judges are supposed to interpret the law, not make the law. There are a variety of things that might impress one voter and turn off a different voter.”
Candidates could also express viewpoints there that they shouldn’t. Anyone running for a judicial seat is bound by California ethics code. Among the restrictions, candidates need to avoid creating an appearance of political bias or implying how they would rule on an issue that could come before the court.
This year, each of these races has just two candidates. That means the winner will be decided in the June primary by whoever gets more than 50% of the vote.
When information is missing
Some candidates did not reply to our requests for images. Some did not have a campaign website and/or list of endorsements available online at the time of publication. We will update this guide as more candidate information becomes available.
Orange County has four candidates vying for two seats. It can be difficult to learn about sitting judges, so we've included links to their profile on Trellis Law, a legal research website, and information showing how they reached the bench. For attorneys, we’ve included their state Bar profiles.
This year, LAist asked all candidates in contested judicial races to complete a survey. We’ve included their responses below. Responses were limited to 800 characters, and LAist did not edit the candidates' submissions.
From left, candidates Ann Cho and Robert Mestman.
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Courtesy of the campaigns
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Senior deputy district attorney, County of Orange
Senior deputy district attorney, County of Orange
From left, candidates Charles E. Pell and Ami S. Sagel
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Courtesy of the campaigns
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No ballot designation
Judge of the Superior Court
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