The Florida Supreme Court justices and District Court of Appeal judges who were up for retention votes this year had a great day yesterday. Congratulations go out to all of the retained justices and appellate judges:
Florida Supreme Court:
Despite facing organized opposition that was unprecedented in the history of retention elections in Florida, all three justices were retained by sizeable margins. As I wrote in my previous post, I view this as a victory for Florida’s non-partisan and generally non-political, merit-based system of selecting and retaining Supreme Court justices and appellate judges. A ballot initiative to give the state senate more power over appointments to the Supreme Court, via proposed Amendment Number 5, also failed.
From what I’ve heard, there were considerably fewer undervotes (ballots on which voters marked preferences in other races but left the merit retention questions blank) than in previous retention elections. So perhaps the contested retention elections had a subsidiary benefit — helping voters become more aware of, and educated about, our Supreme Court justices. Credit for that goes to the many attorneys, laypersons, and legal organizations who worked to educate voters about the retention elections.
First District Court of Appeal:
Second District Court of Appeal:
Third District Court of Appeal:
Fourth District Court of Appeal:
Almost a quarter of DCA judges statewide were on the ballot, including 4 of the 1st DCA’s 15 judges, 4 of the 2nd DCA’s 14 judges, 5 of the 3rd DCA’s 10 judges, 2 of the 4th DCA’s 12 judges, and none of the 5th DCA’s 10 judges. All were easily retained.
Yes votes for retaining each of the 2nd DCA, 3rd DCA, and 4th DCA judges exceeded 72%. The 1st DCA judges were also retained by comfortable margins, although they received slightly less support, with yes vote percentages ranging from a little less than 62% to a little more than 66%. I’m not aware of there being organized opposition to retention of any of the DCA judges, or what accounts for the slightly lower numbers across the board in the 1st DCA retention elections.
Congratulations to all. I look forward to practicing before you in the coming years.