Is Voting for State Judges a Flight of Fancy or a Reflection of Policy and Value Preferences

Generally, judicial voters are viewed as either responding to hardly relevant cues or reacting randomly as they cast ballots for candidates for state benches. However, if the 1988 race for an open seat on the Oregon Supreme Court is any indication, when information is provided voters respond rationally. A tabulation of voters’ responses recorded on the actual punch card ballots more than suggests that voters remain ideologically consistent in their responses to a series of ideologically divisive initiative measures and to contrasting candidates vying in nonpartisan races for the state’s high bench. Perhaps the much maligned judicial voters deserve more credit than heretofore granted.