Single White Fringe Geek: What's With All The Unopposed Judges On The Ballot? (I Learned A Few Things...)

Polls don't vote. News coverage doesn't vote. People do. Get out there and make your voice heard.

Last day of early voting is Monday 11/7. Last day to vote is Election Day on Tuesday 11/8.

The Minnesota Secretary of State's website has all the information you need to vote, including how to register on the day you vote, if you haven't already gotten yourself registered. Minnesota makes it so easy to vote, so please do.

The "What's On My Ballot?" tool shows you everyone running for each office that's on your ballot where you live and vote, and if there are candidate websites, it gives you the link to them to learn more about them. It's amazingly helpful for doing your homework on who to vote for (and who NOT to vote for).

Now, at least on my Minneapolis ballot, none of the many judges listed on the ballot (over 30 of them?!) had an opponent. They're all running unopposed.

In the years when there is an opponent, they normally both have campaign websites and it's pretty easy to figure out who the person with a functioning brain and experience is, and who's the whackadoo you don't want anywhere near a position of power and authority. A quick read and you're good.

I don't feel great voting about someone I know nothing about.

A lot of these judge candidates don't have campaign websites, or if they do have a site, it's just a squatter site from GoDaddy or something, so that they have the URL and some weirdo can't snatch it up and post a bunch of untrue nonsense about them. Solid move, if not terribly informative.

However, I finally had the idea, "Well, what if I just type 'Judge NAME Minnesota' and see what happens?"

And guess what, apparently the state of Minnesota maintains a website about the judicial system with information on ALL the judges. So you can see what their education and experience is, and which governor appointed them, etc. All kinds of info.

Why doesn't the Minnesota Secretary of State website ballot tool link to these like they do other candidate pages? I figure it's probably because it's another official government website, so it looks like the government is endorsing a candidate, and so they don't want to do that? I kind of get that logic, but it's a shame, because all the information is super helpful, and very reassuring, even for the judges who were appointed by governors I didn't vote for and pretty strongly disagree with.

I also learned from the judges who did post their own websites, that the governor doesn't just pull judge names out of thin air or anything. There's a Judicial Selection Panel that makes recommendations to the governor.

Also the judges aren't in for life, they have terms that end and then they need to run for re-election, like a lot of these judges on the ballot are doing now. So that's reassuring as well.

And some of them have interesting little tidbits like "does community theater" which make them seem a bit more human.

So if, like me, you like to know a bit more about how you're voting for before filling in the oval on the ballot, even if they're just running unopposed anyway, try that "Judge [INSERT NAME] Minnesota" trick with the search engine, and one of the results that pops up will be a page from www.mncourts.gov - and that's the judge's official page with the state government. Super handy and informative.

Here's some links to the judges I had on my ballot:

Judges with their own personal pages:

Susan Segal, Court of Appeals 7

Tamara Garcia, 4th Judicial District, Court 7

Michael K. Browne, 4th Judicial District, Court 9

Hilary Lindell Caligiuri, 4th Judicial District, Court 41

Paul Scoggin, 4th Judicial District, Court 45, has a facebook page with the usual unfortunate nonsense in the comments (did you have George Soros on your conspiracy theory bingo card? you win!), so I'll also put up his government profile page (there's more info there anyway)

Bruce D. Manning, 4th Judicial District, Court 60

Government Profile Pages for Judges

Supreme Court 3, Associate Judges

Gordon Moore

Natalie Hudson

Court of Appeals

1 - Theodora Karin Gaitas

5 - Louise Dovre Bjorkman

8 - Denise D Reilly

10 - Jennifer L. Frisch

11 - Michelle A. Larkin

16 - Peter M. Reyes, Jr.