Some candidates don’t respond when the Oregon State Bar prepares its judicial candidate voting guide. That is unfortunate.

There aren’t many contested races for the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals or District courts. When they are contested, it can be very difficult for voters to make a good decision. There just isn’t that much information.

Judicial candidates can’t discuss how they feel about many topics that may come before them in a case. They are supposed to be impartial. And if they talk about how they may personally feel about capital punishment, abortion or mandatory minimum sentencing it could seen to hurt their ability to be impartial when such a case comes before them.

The Bar’s voter guide helps to fill in a lot of very useful information for comparison. Candidates are asked to provide their educational background and relevant work experience. They are asked to list articles or publications they wrote, the nature of their legal work, any disciplinary action taken against them and their trial experience.

The more open-ended questions can be revealing. They are asked to talk about the greatest challenges for their judicial work, a case or issue they are proud of, an issue they are concerned about in the judicial system and a legal figure who they admire.

We do encourage you to check out the responses of the two candidates on the ballot for the Oregon Court of Appeals, Position 3, Vance Day and Darleen Ortega. We have endorsed Ortega.

Among the other candidates on the ballot, few responded. The Court of Appeals race is the only contested one, so we can understand perhaps why many other candidates would not bother. But we think any judge in Oregon would likely agree there can be a sizable gap in understanding the role of judges in Oregon. Filling out the questionnaire for the voting guide is far from necessary. But it is one more way the public can learn about who judges in Oregon are.

You can view the 2022 Judicial Candidate Voting Guide here: tinyurl.com/ORjudgeguide