Here’s my effort to vote for the environment!

For info on how I’m voting on the 13 propositions up for vote this Nov., check out this list. Here are my votes on state-level positions and city-level positions.

Judicial

California Supreme Court Justice
* Joyce L. Kennard: Yes
* Carol A. Corrigan: No vote, for now.

California Court of Appeal Justice
A long list, avaliable here.

Los Angeles Superior Court (LA County)
* Office 8: Deborah L. Sanchez
* Office 18: Daviann L. Mitchell
* Office 102: No vote, for now
* Office 104: Bobbi Tillmon
* Office 114: Janis Levart Barquist
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If you’re like me, you have A LOT of Qs about all the judicial people I need to vote for.

You may ask, for ex: Why am I voting for 24 different judicial positions? Why do I only have yea or nay votes, with only one nominee for almost all positions? And why don’t any of these judges have candidate statements so I can figure out whether I wanna yea or nay them?

Let’s try to simplify things a bit, with some help from bohemian.com.

Basically, we’re voting for 2 different state-level courts — the Cali Supreme Court, and the Cali Court of Appeal — and 1 county-level court, the LA Superior Court.

Let’s start with the state-level courts. The Cali Supreme Court’s the state’s highest court, is made up of 1 chief justice and 6 associate justices. These 7 make decisions that’re binding on all other state courts.

The Courts of Appeal are bigger. We have 6 appellate districts in Cali, most of which’re divided into divisions. These divisions have 1 presiding justice and 3+ associate judges. Basically, these courts evaluate lower courts’ rulings.

How the judges are selected: First, governor chooses potential candidates, who’re reviewed by the Judicial Nomination Evaluation Commission (lawyers and members of the public). The commmission sends back its evaluations to the governor, who then officially nominates the candidates. Nominations are forwarded to the Commission on Judicial Appointments (California’s chief justice, attorney general and a senior presiding justice of the Courts of Appeal) for confirmation or rejection. If confirmed, the candidate becomes a justice and serves 12-year terms or the remainder of a replaced judge’s term.

This means that every 4 years, Californians’re confronted with a long list of justices. All judges are considered nonpartisan. Candidate statements aren’t allowed in voters guides, and voters can only approve or disapprove these appointees.

As for the county-level, Los Angeles Superior Court: This court serves LA County, “from Pomona to Santa Monica and from Lancaster to Long Beach.”

So voting on these isn’t exactly easy. But do check out the above links, once they go live, to see what I was able to find out ’bout these appointees.

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