We judge Houston’s judges so you can vote with ease

It’s inevitable. Standing there at the voting kiosk on Election Day, I usually see a name on the ballot and draw a blank.

Tyler Smith? Was that the candidate who started checking his email while we asked his opponent a question? Or was he the one who had an unpaid judgment against him?

Come to think of it, Smith could be the judge who scored highest in the Judicial Bar Poll.

Not recognizing the name of a downballot candidate is common for average Texans, some of whom have trouble naming their Congress members, let alone a new guy running for justice of the peace.

That’s what makes the political endorsements by the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board so essential — even for a board member like me who has attended hundreds of judicial screenings over my nearly five years at the Chronicle.

Here on the board, we judge the judges. This season, we’re conducting 137 screenings of candidates for congressional, state, county and judicial races. We’re a nonpartisan organization, and the only group of journalists to take the time to research these candidates’ records, sit down with incumbents and opponents alike and ask the tough, pertinent questions that help voters make the right choices.

Why do you think Houstonians should entrust you with this office? Who are your campaign donors? Do you think there’s any difference between Republican or Democratic judges? Should there be?

Under Texas’ system of electing judges, those who want to serve on the bench must win a partisan election even though their loyalty should be to the law and not a party platform. The best judges manage to campaign without compromising their neutrality or fairness.

For our part, the board strives to focus on judicial candidates’ qualifications, impartiality and integrity rather than political affiliations. Sure, we support an ideologically balanced judiciary, but if a Democratic challenger’s most compelling argument for our endorsement is that she would add partisan diversity to an allRepublican court, that’s not enough. We need a good reason to throw out an incumbent judge who, in essence, taxpayers have paid to train with experience on the bench.

Regardless of whether Houstonians choose to vote in November, or choose to consider our endorsements in their votes, the Chronicle’s editorial board members carefully and thoughtfully deliberate the merits of each candidate as if every Houston voter were going to take a copy of the newspaper, a print out or a clipping of our endorsement list into the voting booth. And hey, unlike cellphone usage, newspapers aren’t banned at the polling place.

The process has taught us a lot about the strengths and weakness of the judiciary in Harris County, but my No. 1 takeaway is that the partisan system of electing judges is broken. One candidate told us we’ve got the longest ballot in the nation, which is quite possible given that there are 75 contested judicial races alone on the November ballot.

Few voters have the time, inclination or interest to research each of these judicial candidates in order to cast the most wellinformed vote possible.

Trust me. It’s a 60-hour project to do even a cursory job, and I’m a former partner in a law firm.

Judges should not be elected because they have an R or a D by their names. Or just because they have a familiar name — a bias we’ve seen in the past that can lead to the exclusion of excellent candidates simply because of their exotic-sounding names.

Selecting Texas’ judiciary through partisan elections isn’t a fair system for anyone — judges, defendants, victims or plaintiffs. But it’s the only system we’ve got. And the Chronicle editorial board is doing what we can to help voters make the best choices.

I’ll be back to talk more about this and other issues about the judiciary system. For now, I’ve got to head over to endorsement screening number 75. Only four more to go, but who’s counting?

Actually, the readers are counting — on us. Even if we forget a name or two months later in the voting booth, we never forget what’s weighing on our endorsement process: voters who must be informed to keep our democracy in good operating order.

White is a member of the Houston Chronicle editorial board.