Watch out when you see your ballot in this upcoming election.
It will be a long one, a very, very long one. I learned this while down at the Democratic Party headquarters today.
The new, enlongateted ballot comes thanks to more judgeships, many more judgeships, being added to the ballot. Until this election, municipalities appointed and dismissed the judgeships that are being added. Now voters have the call as to whether these judges should be retained after city officials appoint them.
Now, sometimes when people call for a return to a more Republican form of government, I tend to think where we are is okay. Some would have the U.S. Senators elected by state legislators, instead of by the public, as that is the way the original Constitution called for it to be done.
But, in that, I quite like the shift away from the more Republican form, which was made by the 17th Amendment.
But I believe one of the virtues of a Republican form of government is that it acknowledges the people cannot keep up with all the issues, nor be aware of every public official.
Voters will have more than enough to study up on without having to conjure up opinions on whether judges they have never heard of should be retained.
The ballot this year serves as an argument for a Republican form of government. We neither need nor want to decide whether so many judges should be retained.
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