New website launched to judge Utah judges

LOGAN — Many residents might be confused about how to vote for the various Utah judges that appear on November’s mid-term election ballot.

There are 63 judges state-wide who are currently eligible to stand for retention, six of them are over Cache County. They include district judges Brian Cannell and Angela Fonnesbeck, justices Lee Edwards, Paul Larsen and Matthew Lorz; and appellate judge Paige Petersen.

According to the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, nearly a quarter of Utah voters don’t finish filling out their ballots, and many feel they don’t have enough information to make informed decisions about judges. That’s why the commission — an independent group created by the Utah Legislature in 2008 to evaluate judicial performance — recently revamped its website, judges.utah.gov, with the goal of making it easier for voters to find information about the judges on the ballot.

Unlike most political campaigns, judges don’t face challenges from opponents in elections, they instead face a simple retention vote at the end of each term. As each judge nears the end of their term, the performance commission conducts a retention evaluation and votes to decide whether they meet the minimum performance standards. The results are then posted along with details about the judge’s record, survey results from attorneys, and scoring breakdowns to compare judges to their peers in various categories.

Executive director of the commission Jennifer Yim said, “These evaluations provide in-depth details on judges, something voters tell us is valuable before they cast their ballot. Voters play an important role in our state’s retention system for judges, and we want to provide key information to them on their devices.”

Yim pointed out that most of the judges listed on the site receive favorable recommendations from the commission, but that doesn’t mean the evaluations are lenient to judges.

Although some of the worst-performing judges are weeded out before they reach the ballot, the website provides a variety of metrics voters can use. The site allows for comments from the public on any judge anywhere in the state.


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1 Comment

  • Reavers October 6, 2022 at 11:19 pm Reply

    What a great idea, as long as there is a comment section along with that. I mean just castingva vote of their performance doesnt say anything about things like being invested in the privately owned county jail.

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