It’s that time again in Illinois. We have a primary election on March 19.
Some readers might not know much – or anything – about how we vote for judges in Illinois or, particularly, in Cook County.
Whenever a primary or general election includes judicial candidates, I normally talk about two things:
A link to the Cook County Clerk’s Voter Information site, where you can enter your name and address and be linked to the ballot that applies to you. Here’s that link: https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/elections/your-voter-information
The Alliance of Bar Association for Judicial Screening assessments of candidates for judge in Cook County and for Illinois Appellate or Supreme Court candidates if there are any.
Unfortunately, this time around the Alliance’s published list shows only assessments of candidates in contested elections, which is not fully useful, since we have several candidates running for Cook County judge uncontested and in a few cases some of those candidates are rated unacceptable. So I’m referring you this time to Vote for Judges, a site that provides assessments of all candidates. Here’s the Vote for Judges link: https://www.voteforjudges.org/
Note that Vote for Judges shows ALL of the Cook County subcircuits. Keep in mind that you live in only one subcircuit, so determine who you should care about by looking at your sample ballot from the Cook County Clerk (see the link above).
Circuit and Subcircuit judges serve for 6 years and must, at the end of that term, either leave or run again for retention. On this ballot we have only first-timers. You will vote on judges running for retention in the General Election in November.
Almost all of the candidates are Democrats. In the circuits and subcircuits in which only Democrats are running, whoever wins the primary is the de facto elected judge. A few contests have candidates from both parties. In such cases the judgeships will be decided in the General Election in November . In March you choose your party’s ballot and vote accordingly.
In the Fall, just to confuse the issue, all of the winning primary candidates will be on the ballot again ALONG With judges running for retention. The difference is that primary winners in single-party circuits and subcircuits will be elected even if they get only one vote in the general election. Candidates running for retention must attain approval of 60% or more of those voting that slot; otherwise they are not retained. I’ll re-explain this in the Fall.
I distribute this information in each election cycle that includes judicial candidates because among public servants whom you might encounter in your life, a judge could possibly be the most consequential. It pays to elect judges who have the temperament, intelligence, experience and knowledge to provide what we conceive of as “justice.”
I hope you find this information informative.
Thanks to Charlie Meyerson and his every-weekday news service https://www.chicagopublicsquare.com/ for being key to providing the information on this primary election. I subscribe to Chicago Public Square. You can get it for free – or, better, pay for your subscription or, at least, make a contribution at https://chicagopublicsquare.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c1ce195a775f7d7ff4846006e&id=01942e7bc1
Whatever you do, please do one thing above all:
VOTE!!
Edmund J. McDevitt
©2024