Civitas Conversations - Judicial Candidates

Civitas Staff | September 28, 2010

Judicial races have a tremendous impact on North Carolina and its citizens, and many judicial seats will be determined in this November’s election. However, despite the great importance of these races, many voters fail to vote for judicial candidates. This low voter turnout is partially due to the fact that judicial races are listed at the end of the ballot and are officially non-partisan. Straight ticket voting does not include candidates for the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and other judicial races.

The Supreme Court is the highest appellate court and consists of a chief justice and six associate justices, all of whom sit together as a panel. There is no further appeal in the state from Supreme Court decisions. Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms and are elected in statewide non-partisan elections.

The Court of Appeals is an error-correcting intermediate court where judges sit in rotating groups of three when making judgments. Judges also serve eight-year terms and are elected in statewide non-partisan elections.

Because of the immense power and responsibility given to appellate-level judges in addition to the extensive length of their terms, it is important that North Carolinians vote for judicial candidates they feel will best serve the state and its citizens. Voters must put a tremendous amount of trust and confidence in our justices that they will judge fairly and impartially.

For these reasons, the Civitas Institute has created judicial profiles on each Court of Appeals and Supreme Court candidate running in the November election. Basic information about each candidate, a link to their website, and an exclusive Civitas interview (all candidates were invited to participate) are included in each profile. We hope our efforts allow voters to learn more about each candidate and make an informed decision this November. (Please note, the Supreme Court candidates will be featured next week).

USE THIS LINK TO VIEW EACH CANDIDATES INFO AND VIDEO OF JUDICIAL CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS

http://www.nccivitas.org/media/publicat ... candidates