Why Do We Vote for Judges?
The legislative branch is nonpartisan and sits above the political fray. They do not run on a given party ticket, often run unopposed and many stay in office election after election. They take no stance on issues in the interest of impartiality. So why do we vote for judges? We vote for them because if they were political appointees, any pretense of impartiality would disappear. This leaves voters with almost nothing to go on where judicial candidates are concerned. District Attorney Meg Heap and Spencer Lawton, former long-time district attorney for Chatham County, will speak on Courts 101 to expand on his blog post and educate voters on how to parse judicial candidates and make informed choices. Juvenile justice is an important part of the League’s Legislative Agenda and crime is a perennial hot button campaign issue. Join us for this enlightening talk on Sept. 13 at 7:00 pm the Jewish Educational Alliance.
Endorsed
Our Voters Guide has been our most accessed resource since before the primary last Spring. The Guide has been updated with the candidates making the final cut for the November 6 election. To keep you better informed, we are doing a series of posts on candidates, election appearances and statements about issues. Endorsements are an integral part of any political campaign. They tell us a great deal about who a candidate’s friends are and where they stand on a given issue. Endorsements are, by their nature, narrowly focused—those “special interests” we hear so much about—but looking at the full list of a candidate’s endorsements can tell you how actively they are campaigning, who may be funding their efforts and how they line up with the issues you care about.
League Registers Almost 20,000 Students
Thirty-eight League chapters—Coastal Georgia among them—held 600 voters registration events at high schools and community colleges across the country and registered just under 20,000 students who will vote for the first time this November. If you’d like to be part of this exciting, important work, email us at lwvcga@gmail.com and join our Voter Engagement Committee.
Government Exists to Serve You
“For all its imperfections, real democracy best upholds the idea that government exists to serve the individual and not the other way around. And it is the only form of government that has the possibility of making that idea real.”
–Barack Obama speaking at a celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 100 th birthday
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