Explaining the Vote in Judicial Elections: the 1984 Ohio Supreme Court Elections

• Author: Lawrence Baum
• Published date: 01 June 1987
• Date: 01 June 1987
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591298704000213
• Subject Matter: Articles

EXPLAINING

THE

VOTE

IN

JUDICIAL

ELECTIONS:

THE

1984

OHIO

SUPREME

COURT

ELECTIONS

LAWRENCE

BAUM

Ohio

State

University

HE

MERITS

of

alternative

systems

for

selection

of

state

judges

have

t

been

the

subject

of

debate

throughout

American

history

(Dubois

~

1980:

ch.

1).

That

debate

continues

today,

focusing

on

the

choice

between

the

traditional

systems

of

election

and

gubernatorial

appointment

and

the

twentieth-century

innovation

of

the

Missouri

Plan,

under which

the

governor

appoints

judges

from

a

list

of

commission

nominees.

In

recent

years,

the

debate

over

state

selection

systems

increasingly

has

been

informed

by

empirical

research

about

the

operation

and

consequences

of

these

systems,

with

the

greatest

attention

given

to

judicial

elections.

A

number

of

studies

have

examined

patterns

of

outcomes

in

states

that

elect

judges

(Dubois

1980,

1984;

Barber

1984;

Hannah

1978),

and

several

have

used

survey

research

to

probe

the

information

that

voters

seek

and

use

to

make

their

decisions

(Johnson,

Schaefer,

and

McKnight

1978;

Lovrich

and

Sheldon

1983, 1985;

Sheldon

and

Lovrich

1983).

But

there

is still

little

survey

evidence

about

the

factors

that

influence

voters’

choices

in

judicial

elections

(but

see

Ladinsky

and

Silver

1967).~

This

limitation

is

unfortunate,

because

survey

evidence

on

voters’

choices

is

the

most

direct

means

to

learn

about

the

bases

for

those

choices.

This

article

is

an

effort

to

contribute

to

an

improved

understanding

of

judicial

elections

by

analyzing

survey

data

on

one

pair

of

races,

the

contests

for

seats

on

the

Ohio

Supreme

Court

in

1984.

It

will

focus

on

the

roles

of

party

loyalties,

ideology,

and

issues

in

shaping

voter’s

choices.

CURRENT

KNOWLEDGE

ON

VOTING

IN

JUDICIAL

ELECTIONS

The

existing

research

on

judicial

elections

suggests

a

tentative

picture

of

the

forces

that

influence

individual

voters

and

election

results.

Most

ju-

dicial

contests

are

not

very

visible,

so

that

they

supply

small

quantities

of

information

to

the

electorate.

Citizens

who

vote

in

judicial

contests

tend

to

be

better

informed

than

those

who

abstain

(Lovrich

and

Sheldon

1983:

247,

253).

But

even

those

who

do

vote,

taken

as

a

group,

demonstrate

only

Received:

January

8,

1986

Revision

Received:

May

6,

1986

Accepted

for

Publication:

May

7,

1986

NOTE:

For

their

help

in

the

development

of

this

paper,

I

would

like

to

thank

Dee

Allsop,

Aage

Clausen,

John

Kessel,

Elliot

Slotnick,

Herbert

Weisberg,

and

three

anonymous

reviewers.

The

data

used

in

the

paper

were

provided

to

me

by

the

Polimetrics

Labora-

tory

of

the

Department

of

Political

Science

of

Ohio

State

University.

’ One

study

of

voting

in

Missouri

Plan

retention

elections

in

Wyoming

(Griffin

and

Horan

1983)

analyzed

reasons

for

voters’

choices

in

that

election,

with

useful

findings.