Straight-ticket vote might result in judicial damage

Few counties in the United States boast a longer general election ballot than Harris County. Voters here will be asked to select a candidate in 92 contested races, from the U.S. Senate at the top, to justice of the peace at the bottom. These races are all important and deserve voters’ attention and consideration, but most won’t get it.

If the last general election is instructive, nearly two-thirds of us will vote a straight ticket, according to the Center for Public Political Studies at Austin Community College. We may do it this time because we’re angry with President Donald Trump, or perhaps fed up with Democrats in the U.S. Senate. And straight-ticket voting is quick, easy, and simple. But what straightticket voters may not appreciate is that 78 of the 92 races on the ballot are judicial contests, where party affiliation should have little to do with qualifications, and in which straight-ticket voting has the potential to cause what one judicial candidate has called “collateral damage.”

Consider, for example, the race for the 228th Criminal District Court, where a fine Republican judge, Marc Carter, is running against a little-known candidate, Democrat Frank Aguilar. While most of the candidates for these judgeships are qualified, whether Democrat or Republican, voters seeking to research the race for the 228th can discover little about Aguilar. The editorial board was unable to locate his website. A Google search brought up a 2010 ABC story that the candidate, at that time a magistrate judge, caused bodily injury to a person with whom he had a dating relationship. Aguilar was later acquitted, but a favorable result in a trial for assault doesn’t mean that a candidate has what the voters want for a criminal district judge. Candidates who aren’t transparent enough to list their credentials on an easily discoverable social media platform have no business holding a position that involves public trust.

In contrast, Carter — who’s been on the bench since 2003 — has a very public record starting with a distinguished background in the military. The Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduate was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps, achieved the rank of captain and was responsible for theater-level intelligence-gathering operations in Europe before resigning his commission. He joined the Harris County District Attorney’s office before opening a private practice.

Most importantly though, Carter who manages a veteran’s court was among the first of the Harris County judges to embrace the diversionary court system, which keeps defendants out of jail and provides treatment for their underlying problems. He’s not a ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ kind of judge. He’s the kind of judge you’d want if your military son or daughter came back from serving our country with PTSD and committed a crime.

Carter is the kind of judge who granted probation to a 42-year-old man, charged with possession of hydrocodone, facing a sentence of 25 years to life. Joseph Dowell had gone through a rehabilitation program during his 32 months in the Harris County Jail and claimed that he had turned his life around. A few months later, Dowell was still on track for recovery when he died trying to get to his job at the city of Houston Public Works Department during Hurricane Harvey.

We can say with the authority that comes from hundreds of hours spent on this endorsement process that Democrats this year have, in most races, fielded a strong slate of judicial candidates. This isn’t usually the case, because for the past several decades, Republicans usually win during midterm elections, and qualified Democrats don’t bother tossing their hat in the ring. Unfortunately, not all judicial candidates are qualified.

If Harris County Democrats choose to vote straight ticket, Carter will be part of collateral damage of that collective decision. Two decades of Carter’s institutional knowledge could be lost.

So channel your anger productively. Volunteer to take a neighbor to vote. Sign up to work the voting booths in your precinct or man the phones at your local party office. Take a list of judicial candidates into the voting booth with you, whether it’s the Chronicle’s list or some other organization that vets candidates on a non-partisan basis. But whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, don’t pull that straight-ticket lever unless you want to help elect some unqualified judges in Harris County. White is a member of the Houston Chronicle editorial board. Balagia is a practicing attorney and retired general counsel of ExxonMobil who volunteers as an adviser to the board in judicial races.