Electing to choose your next judges

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

This past week was the Pennsylvania Democratic and Republican Primaries in advance of the November general election.  I didn’t vote in them.  Chances are, you didn’t either.

There are about 1.1 million registered voters in Philadelphia.  Of this number, not counting independents or those affiliated with other parties, Democrats outnumber Republicans about 900,000 to 150,000, or about 6 to 1.  But, as is the case historically, turnout is really low in these races.  In fact, for the District Attorney’s race, only about 100,000 voters (which is about 99,900,000 voters less than the American Idol final vote) participated in the Democratic primary, with Seth Williams garnering about 43 percent of the vote.  And because of the Democrat/Republican voter breakdown, the winner of the Democratic race will, in all likelihood, be the winner in the general election.  In other words, by virtue of about 43,000 people voting, the next DA has been effectively chosen. 

The races for judges of the Court of Common Pleas exhibit more unnerving trends.  Someone obtaining about 26,000 votes would have obtained one of the spots on the Democratic Party ticket for the general election.  Compared to the number of reigstered voters, as well as general voter ignorance as to who is qualified to be a judge, it’s a veritable “crapshoot” as to whether truly qualified judges will be elected.

So all these stats beg a question.  Should there continue to be election of judges in the city and state.  There’s no easy answer.

Tags: election of judges, registered voters, Seth Williams