What You Ought to Know About the Judge Retention Votes on the November Ballot

If you look at the ballot for the upcoming November 4th election, you’ll see a series of questions about retention of judges with a yes or no answer. There’s very little information on the ballot and it’s a bit confusing, but here’s what you need to know.

Does it matter that all five judges are Democrats?

The first three retention votes reference judges on the PA Supreme Court. There is also one for the Superior Court and one for the Commonwealth Court. There is no mention of political party affiliation which you might think makes sense because these are judges, what would political affiliation have to do with it? Well, quite a lot. All five of these judges are Democrats.

There are also two Erie County judges up for retention on the court of common pleas, John J Mead and Joseph M Walsh. The issues outlined here do not apply

Pennsylvania is one of seven states that selects justices for the supreme court with a partisan election. The Pennsylvania court has 7 justices. Candidates are affiliated with a political party and appear on the ballot like any other candidate for office. It is the rare voter who knows anything about those candidates or their previous legal record. The current court has 5 democrats and 2 republicans on the bench. In an ideal world, a justice, once seated, evaluates each case on its merits with absolute impartiality and adheres to the law, … in an ideal world. Political affiliation ~~doesn’t~~ shouldn’t matter.

Our PA Supreme Court is currently very lopsided

In PA, Democrat governors sometimes need to make controversial decisions and after some debate they are inclined to say, we’ll let the courts decide. Former Governor Wolf liked to do that, because he knew questions for the courts were highly likely to be decided in his favor, 5 to 2, along party lines. Governor Shapiro is in the same situation. If a decision is referred to the court, it would not be surprising to go his way, every time.

This is your chance to fix this

Retention votes give the voters of PA a chance to even out the court. If a judge loses the retention vote, another judge will be appointed to finish their term and in this case there will be another election for those positions on the court in 2027. Republicans are campaigning for voters to vote no on every retention vote, which, again, is a chance for voters to have a more balanced court.

These judges have been and will be involved in cases having to do with mail-in ballots, voting machines and other election decisions including potential redistricting. If a judge is inclined to vote in alignment with their political affiliation, this matters a lot.

Don’t skip those questions

Don’t skip those yes or no votes. This is a very important issue and this is your chance to have an effect on the PA courts and their decision making process.

You can check out the ballots on our voter information page.