The University of Akron launched the website "Judicial Votes Count," dedicated to educating voters on the judiciary system and candidates running for judicial positions.
With election season fast approaching, Ohio residents have a new tool to help them sift through the candidates running for judicial positions.
The Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron recently launched Judicial Votes Count, an unbiased website devoted to educating voters on the judicial system as well as the candidates running in their area.
Director of the Bliss Institute John Green highlighted the unique issues of judicial candidates.
“(Voters) frequently skip voting for judges for a number of reasons,” Green said. “(Judicial candidates) are at the bottom of the ballot and often, they’re unopposed.”
The Bliss Institute partnered with the Ohio State Bar Association and Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor to send out a questionnaire to all candidates running for a judicial position in the state. Green said a high percentage of candidates replied in time for the launch of the site last week.
Todd Grace, a magistrate in Athens County Juvenile Court, was one of the candidates contacted.
Running unopposed, Grace will be elected as the Athens County Municipal Court Judge this November, but he has already felt the effects of uneducated voters.
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“More than 50 percent of the time that I was campaigning (in 2014) was spent trying to educate the potential voters about why judicial votes matter,” Grace shared.
Grace ran in the primary against Pat Lang, another democrat, for the same office in May of 2014, but lost by only four votes.
“In judicial elections, there is a huge drop off,” Grace said.
This drop off is reflected in Athens County Board of Elections data. According to the board’s 2014 official summary report, only 14,683 people cast a ballot, which represented about 34 percent of the registered voters in Athens County.
From that group, more than 3,700 voters abstained from voting for the Ohio Supreme Court Candidate, meaning fewer than a quarter of the voter turnout took the time to vote for the highest judicial position in the state.
And the percentages of voters that abstained from voting for the other lower judicial positions up for election were even higher.
Some Ohio University students registered to vote in Ohio support this trend.
Casey Palmer, a freshman studying nursing, said she recently turned 18.
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“(Voting) is just not a top priority,” Palmer said.
Emily Monaco, a sophomore studying nursing, doesn’t even consider judicial candidates during election season.
“I just think about the president, that’s all we hear about,” Monaco said.
@kaitfoch
