KENTUCKY — “A July 13 decision by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals could eventually offer Ohioans an opening to reconsider how they’ve picked judges for almost 160 years — in elections.
In 1938 and 1987, voters decisively rejected merit-selection plans for Ohio’s Supreme Court and appellate courts. In merit selection, the governor appoints judges from a list submitted by screeners. The appointed judge periodically runs for “retention,” based on his or her judicial performance. Candidates for judgeships don’t run against each other…. The constitutional issues flagged by the federal Appeals Court in the Kentucky case indicate that Ohio may someday find itself facing the same fork in the same road: Either the state gives its judicial candidates free rein — with, yes, a risk of wild electioneering — or the state finds a better way of choosing judges than the method it uses today.” Cleveland Plain Dealer.
A better way to choose Judges in Ohio?
Peter Hardin, GavelGrab.
2009
Find out how politicians 
