Missouri voters are being asked on this year’s midterm election ballot whether they want to retain judges, but finding information about judges is no easy task.
For the last 80 years, Missouri has put the retention of appellate court judges on the ballot under the Missouri Plan, or the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan, to combat partisanship in the courts.
But courts under the Missouri Plan do not have campaigning judges because they are nonpartisan, which means information about the judges isn’t presented clearly as it is for candidates. Some voters have taken to social media to voice their concerns about finding solid information.
University of Missouri law professor Ben Trachtenberg said even the most experienced lawyers who pay attention to courts can have difficulty following the profiles of appellate court judges.
“It's not easy to get information about whether a court of appeals judge or a state Supreme Court judge is doing a good job. I think most people are inclined to vote to retain judges unless they've heard something really bad,” said Trachtenberg. “I think a lot of people are thinking, ‘If you haven't heard anything bad about them, I bet they're okay.’”
The judges on the ballot have already served in their positions for one year. A simple majority of “yes” votes will allow appellate and Supreme Court judges to continue their terms and remain in office for another 12 years. A simple majority “no” vote will remove the judge from the court when their term expires, and Gov. Mike Kehoe would then nominate a replacement.
Under the Missouri Plan, a nonpartisan committee nominates three candidates when there’s a judicial vacancy, then the governor of the state picks a nominee. Once judges are appointed, their retention must be put to public vote in the next available election cycle.
This process can also be adopted in local Missouri elections, and counties can opt in to adopt the Missouri Plan. There are two ways Missouri selects circuit court judges: the first is the Missouri Plan, the second is through partisan public election.
Included in the Missouri Plan are the Missouri Supreme Court and the Missouri Court of Appeals districts, as well as the city of St. Louis and St. Louis, Jackson, Clay, Platte and Greene counties. More populous counties tend to adopt the Missouri Plan in their circuit courts.
Fifty judges are up for retention in Missouri on November 3. Boone County will see two on the ballot: Supreme Court Judge Paul Wilson and Western District Court of Appeals Judge Lisa White Hardwick. Boone County opts for a partisan public vote for circuit judges.
As part of the plan, the Missouri Judicial Performance Committee provides nonpartisan recommendations for retention and publishes online information on each judge for every election cycle.
According to Judicial Performance Committee chair Debbie Dodge, the review takes into account judicial opinions written by the judges, as well as lawyer surveys and even juror reviews.
“I am a big believer in knowledge is power, and in this particular committee, what we are doing is we’re providing as much knowledge to voters as possible,” said Dodge.
According to Dodge, the review this year began in the summer, concluding on Aug. 1. The survey was sent out to all members of the Missouri Bar, with response quantities varying by county. The information is reported anonymously to the committee, and Dodge estimates it would take at least 16 hours of reading to go through the information of all 50 of the judges across state ballots this year.
“We don't know as a committee who the judges are when we are reviewing the opinions, and so after our review, we thereafter make a determination and a recommendation based upon the material that we review,” Dodge said.
Dodge also said it’s hard to calculate how many responses the surveys gathered, because every question is optional. Some lawyers may provide answers about certain judges they may be familiar with, but not to judges they aren’t.
Jayne Woods is the director of legal analysis research and communication at the University of Missouri School of Law, and she received the survey.
“Basically, the idea is to try and get politics out of judicial selection,” Woods said. "They ask attorneys, ‘Does this judge make fair decisions? Does this judge treat all litigants the same? Does this judge follow the law?’”
The information, along with the committee recommendation and each judge’s background and biography, is then published online. The process is both “transparent to the public and accountable to the people,” according to the Judicial Performance Committee’s website.
“With all of that information, people usually can make a pretty good decision. Most judges are honestly doing a great job; they are trying to follow the law and do the best that they can. And so, for that reason, most of them do get retained,” Woods said.
Since its inception in 1940, only four circuit judges have not been retained under Missouri Plan courts. Missouri was the first state in the nation to adopt a merit-based judicial selection and review system.
The plan was adopted due to public frustration with political and partisan judicial elections and judicial decision-making. American political bosses like Tom Pendergast at the time were buying votes, packing courts and rigging elections—controlling the ballot box through fraud and manipulation.
According to the Judicial Performance Committee’s website, since Missouri voters adopted the Missouri Plan, more than 30 states have followed suit in some way, “making it a model for the nation.”
“Other states that have adopted this sort of system have often referred to it as adopting the Missouri Plan or something similar,” Trachtenberg said. “And I think the state can take some pride in having come up with a system that places like New York later looked over. The people in Missouri came up with something smart.”
To learn more about judges on the ballot, voters can access the information gathered, along with recommendations for retention of the judges, available online at YourMissouriJudges.org. St. Louis Public Radio has also compiled a list of this information, along with summaries of how judges across the state have ruled on high-profile cases.
