Beyond the 2012 ballot: the bar's voter education efforts must continue.

• Author: Young, Gwynne A.
• Position: President's Page

Since I was sworn in as president of The Florida Bar, I have been living and breathing merit retention, during what unfortunately became a highly charged political process at times.

Now that Florida's voters have spoken and said "yes" to retaining three Supreme Court justices and 15 other appellate judges, it is important to reflect on what we learned in this process and what that teaches us for the future.

Clearly, we must continue our efforts to educate the public not only on the merit selection and retention process and why it is important to keep politics out of the system, but also to continue civics education on the separation of powers; the importance of an independent, fair, and impartial judiciary to our democracy; and the role judges must perform in resolving the disputes before them, regardless of the lack of popularity for certain parties or certain positions.

Thus, just because the 2012 general election is over does not mean The Florida Bar's educational efforts about merit retention should end.

While eschewing politics, we launched a vigorous statewide education program called "The Vote's In YOUR COURT--Judicial Merit Retention, Know the Facts," that included a website full of information, the distribution of more than 350,000 voter guides, public service announcements on public radio stations, a speakers' bureau, participation in Bar-sponsored and community events, social media campaigns via Twitter and Facebook, and an educational video on YouTube.

That is appropriate to carry out the Bar's role in advocating and educating on issues that impact the administration of justice, and that is fully consistent with the Bar's efforts in this regard in the past. Since the first merit retention election in 1978, The Florida Bar has provided consumers with biographical information on the judges and justices up for retention, and we have conducted a poll of members with results released to the news media.

Going forward, the Bar should continue and increase its merit retention education efforts because I have witnessed firsthand that the need for education, even among lawyers, is great. It's clear to me that merit retention is just not on the radar screen of many otherwise intelligent, well-meaning voters. I was talking to a young lawyer at one event, and she thought merit retention had to do with teacher's merit pay.

The whole experience has reinforced the need for educating the public--including lawyers--about nonpartisan merit...