Invest In Good Voting

This fall, Washington state voters will face candidates for more than 120 judgeships, Supreme Court to traffic court.

Will voters know who those candidates are? Or will many stare glassy-eyed at the list of unfamiliar names and decline even to punch the ballot, as voters often have done in the past?

Washington needs good judges. An informed electorate is the key to getting them. But the state voter’s guide does not include judicial candidates and is prepared only for the November election, not the primary election that actually decides many judicial races.

In 1996, the state court administrator’s office moved to remedy the situation. Using one-time donations and a shoestring budget, it assembled an experimental voter’s guide, with a resume and statement from each candidate for judge. To eliminate postage, the guide was distributed as an insert in newspapers statewide.

The administrator’s office wants to make this a regular state service - like the November voter’s guide, only far cheaper. It’s asking legislators for a $175,000 line in the supplemental budget, for production and distribution expenses.

That’s a bargain. It’s an investment in better-informed voting about a branch of government we cannot afford to overlook.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster For the editorial board