When Florida voters go to the polls this November to pick a president, they’ll also be asked to decide on races that will get much less fanfare: whether to retain three Florida Supreme Court justices and 15 appellate court justices in various regions of the state.
Many voters will skip the judges elections – in which they are asked to vote "yes’’ or “no” to let them stay in the job another six years, election data shows. Many more will simply guess, willing to make an uninformed choice. The Florida Bar, the statewide professional organization for lawyers, wants to change that.
Armed with data that shows that 9 out of 10 Florida voters are unaware of what it means to have a “merit retention” election for Florida judges, the Bar has launched a statewide education campaign to spread the word about the process that allows the state’s appellate level judges to stay in office.
Read more here:
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/florida-bar-launches-campaign-educate-voters-merit-retention
http://news.wfsu.org/post/florida-supremes-facing-retention-votes-2012
http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNNews01.nsf/RSSFeed/AEC288EDA8313A55852579F4006C03DA
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/justices/merit.shtml
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2012/Apr/30/askew_joins_fla__merit_retention_education_push.html
http://capitolvanguard.org/articles/merit-retention-and-activist-judges/
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/04/florida-bar-seeks-to-publicize-merit-retention-election-for-judges.html
http://www.postonpolitics.com/2012/04/with-justices-under-fire-florida-bar-launches-voter-campaign-on-merit-retention/
http://www.fairandimpartial.com/2012/editorial-merit/
http://www.fairandimpartial.com/2012/fla-supreme-court-protect-merit-retention/
