Learn about judges before casting vote
Ohioans get to vote for what seems like almost every Ohio official, notably for all state and local judges, whose powers range from traffic fines to the death penalty.
That’s why, in addition to Donald Trump’s Ohio showing last year, bystanders sometimes call Ohio a “Jacksonian” state, after Andrew Jackson, and his era’s politics.
Ohio, a non- slave state, certainly isn’t called Jacksonian because Jackson, president from 1829 to 1837, was a slave owner. Nor is Ohio called Jacksonian because Jackson committed genocide against Native Americans and plundered their land ( though Ohio itself has plenty to be ashamed of in its treatment of Native Americans).
Instead, Ohio is called Jacksonian for the politics of Jackson’s pre- Civil War era. Jacksonian politics aimed to maximize the political power of the “common ( white) man” against, say, the power of political insiders. Today, thanks to the 19th Amendment, which took effect in 1920, “the common man” means “common men and women.” And thanks to the Voting Rights of 1965 ( which, a century late, enforced 1870’s 15th Amendment), “the common man” means “common men and women, regardless of race.”
Ohio, influenced by Jacksonian politics, wrote its second state constitution in 1851. The constitution has been amended repeatedly, but the 1851 charter’s cornerstone (enhanced by 1912 amendments authorizing statewide ballot issues) remains: Ohio voters get to fill most of the state’s public offices — notably, Ohio’s judgeships.
Berea-born Raymond Moley, a Progressive reformer who later ended up conservative and a onetime member of Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust, wrote a 1932 study of New York’s first- tier courts, which vaguely resembled Ohio’s Municipal courts. Ideally, Moley said, firsttier New York courts should have been “tribunes of the people.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a tribune, “in ancient Rome [ was] an elected official whose job was to protect people’s rights.” Oh, well. Ohioans can dream.
Next month, voters will fill some municipal judgeships. Because Ohio’s ballot for judges doesn’t include a candidate’s party affiliation, it’s very difficult for nonlawyers to know much about the men and women who want to wear black robes ( today’s Roman toga), wield gavels and cost, or save, Ohioans money or liberty.
Among other contests on November’s ballot, there are contests for municipal judgeships in Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Lyndhurst and South Euclid; for judgeships in Franklin County’s countywide Municipal Court; and, in the Miami Valley, for judgeships in Butler County’s Middletown Municipal Court and in Warren County’s Franklin Municipal Court.
To help voters make choices, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor marshalled a constellation of nonpartisan groups and the University of Akron’s Ray C. Bliss Institute for Applied Politics. The result: A website, Judicial Votes Count, that offers Ohioans impartial information on candidates for judgeships: http:// blogs. uakron. edu/ judicialvotescount/
Meanwhile, there are regional information sites, too: http:// www. judge4yourself. com/ will offer non- partisan information on candidates for Cuyahoga County judgeships. ( Data will be posted soon, the site says.) That site’s sponsored by the Judicial Candidates Rating Coalition: The Norman S. Minor Bar Association, the Ohio Women’s Bar Association, the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. And the Columbus Bar Association offers nonpartisan information on Franklin County judgeship candidates: http://www.judgethecandidates. org/
Ohioans have indicated time and again that they won’t surrender their right to elect judges. That’s power. So is knowledge — which is what nonpartisan websites on judgeships offer voters.
Footnote: According to Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office, the voter registration deadline is Oct. 10 — that is, Tuesday — for the Nov. 7 election. Information on registering online, in person or by U. S. Mail is at https:// olvr. sos. state. oh. us Early voting begins on Wednesday.