Voters To Pick Georgia’s Highest Judges In Tuesday’s Primary
Voters in Tuesday’s primary elections will pick some of Georgia’s top judges.
Associated Press file / associated press file
Along with the candidates for the state’s highest offices like governor and lieutenant governor, voters in Tuesday’s primary elections will also pick some of Georgia’s top judges.
Judicial races for the state supreme court and court of appeals, the two highest courts in Georgia, are nonpartisan.
That means they’ll appear on every ballot pulled in the primaries, even those associated with a political party. Voters who choose a nonpartisan ballot will pretty much just get to vote on judges.
And there aren’t many real choices to make. Many candidates are incumbents and running unopposed.
Atlanta lawyer Mike Terry has written on the subject of judicial elections for the Atlanta Bar Association. He says, for the most part, sitting judges don’t draw challengers.
“That’s not a rule. It’s not a law. But it is the way it works,” Terry said. “Judges who do not distinguish themselves in a negative way tend to stay in office, pretty much as long as they want.”
Terry says it’s also kind of awkward for a lawyer to run against a sitting judge and lose, especially if that lawyer later ends up in that judge’s courtroom.
He says competitive races do happen, usually to fill the seats of retiring judges or those who are running for spots on higher courts.
Sitting judges tend to find themselves in competitive races only when the legal community agrees there are problems in their courtrooms.
“Either the judge is untimely with their rulings, the judge is rude and discourteous to lawyers and parties or some sort of problem like that that has become widespread enough that not only is someone encouraged to run but others are encouraged to support them,” Terry said.
Other challenge for potential judicial challengers? Terry said it takes a lot of money and public support to beat an incumbent, especially in a down-ballot race.
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