Why do we elect judges?

I said I was going to try to avoid the self-righteous ranting of so many bloggers, so I'll keep this post brief. But I want to make sure my friends and family back in NC get this message before they vote this November!

I've been teaching Canadian Civics for the last 2 years, and my students are always amazed at the idea that Americans elect so many judges. "How can ordinary people decide who is best qualified to be a judge?" they ask, and frankly, it's a good question. (of course, allowing people to vote in general is scary, isn't it?) :-)

Most of the judicial races in NC involve reasonably well qualified people who, although "non-partisan" have clear party loyalties. I'm not going to tell you how to vote in most of those cases--read up on issues, vote based on party loyatly, whatever you choose. However, the NC Supreme Court race between Mark D. Martin & Rachel Lea Hunter seems rather different. As a lifelong Democrat who probably disagrees with him on many issues, I'm urging everyone to please vote for the Republican, Martin. It would take too long to detail all the things that seem to be wrong with Hunter and her campaign, although a quick google search will show you quite a few. Basically, her behaviour throughout the campaign seems to be that of a publicity-seeker with little grasp of reality or common sense. I hoped at first that her campaign website was a joke of some kind, but it doesn't appear to be so, so please just vote against her. Yeah, I guess I'm giving her the attention she wants but doesn't deserve (well, I think about 5 people read this, so that's not that much attention!), but I'm a little afraid to see her elected to the NC Supreme Court.

Sorry for the longish rant. Next post will be about my job search or knitting or something else totally safe. :-)

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree with you 100%....LOL...!! :-))