American evening

[shayenne]

It must be American evening here in Queensland

Comments

[kim_j_8472]

Try Judgepedia: http://www.judgepedia.com/index.php/Main_Page.

There's Ballotpedia: http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Colorado

[shayenne]

Thank you! Ballotpedia is very helpful.

[audabee]

I forgot to vote in the recent council elections this year (migraine). Voting for councils is bad enough, but I find voting for judges to be oddly disquieting. What a very weird system.

[shayenne]

You only get to vote on the ones who have been recommended for retention. SO has voted "No" on all of them on principle (no sitting CO judge has ever NOT been recommended for retention).

Do you get fined for not voting in council elections?

[audabee]

I wonder if we'd have ever got someone like Michael Kirby if we voted for judges. Jesus, the mind boggles? Who would think some bogan would have enough nouse to decide on which judge gets elected?

Yep (or, at least, you get fined for not getting your name crossed off - you don't get fined for not voting - how would they know?).

It's one of my huge bugbears that people call what we have "compulsory voting". We don't. We have compulsory turning up to the poll centre on election day. Quite frankly, I think it's a small price to pay for our system (which, while certainly not perfect, it shits all over the fiasco that the USians call a "democracy". Sometimes I think that some USians wouldn't know democracy if it bit them on the arse).

[kim_j_8472]

I wish we had "compulsory" voting. Mr. Kim J thinks otherwise, but considering that we have more people voting for "Dancing With the Stars" or "American Idol" than the last presidential turnout, I'm a bit more frowny face about it than most. Not everyone does the kind of research Shayster and I do, naturally, but sometimes the complacency makes me want to burst a blood vessel.