Without much time to catch your breath, the next election season begins with a myriad of political offices and a bewildering ballot. It’s not just county row offices but also township supervisors and borough councilmen. Then throw in school board and top it off with judges and you have so many positions to fill that many voters stay home. Of all the elections in a four year cycle these local races have the least attendance with numbers varying around twenty percent.
But not voting in this election can be a bad decision since so many of the offices are filled with people close to home. Clearly, one of the biggest yearly taxes we pay is for our public schools but yet few people show up to select the board members who create the budget. And certainly our lives are impacted by supervisors or councilmen who not only assess an annual tax but also pass regulations and statutes that we have to navigate whether it’s dog licenses or building permits.
In Pennsylvania these off year elections also throw in judicial contests filling Common Pleas, Commonwealth, Superior and the State Supreme Court. In some states candidates for these positions are selected by the governor and voted on by their state senate but in this commonwealth we elect them in the spring primary. However, once elected these jurists do not run again in primaries but appear only on the November ballot where they face a yes or no vote and their political party is unlisted. This retention system was designed to take the politics out of the judicial race.
Of course, in the US everything is now politicized and unfortunately judicial races have millions of dollars pledged especially for the state Supreme Court race. This court could have to deal with issues like gerrymandering and the creation of Congressional districts, educational funding and direct the outcome of cases that involve reproductive and voting rights and state policies such as marijuana legalization.​ It seems all too important compared to sitting it out. However, it does require some homework in examining all the different candidates and offices particularly county row offices and judicial races.
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