Magistrates Robert Burton, Eugene Marano

Two Kootenai County judges will try to keep their offices this election.

But the only people Magistrate Robert Burton and Magistrate Eugene Marano will be running against are themselves.

Magistrates are chosen by a commission made up of citizens, government officials and lawyers. After being in office for 1-1/2 years and every four years afterward, they run in a “retention election.”

In that election, voters are simply asked to decide whether the judge should stay on the bench.

It takes a simple majority for the judge to stay or go. The election is non partisan.

If voters say yes, the magistrate stays in office. If they say no, the magistrate commission selects a new judge.

Judges said they like the system, which was adopted in 1974.

“It allows you to have some independence from the populous,” Burton said. “You don’t have to be beholden to anyone.”

This year Marano has begun campaigning for the first time after a Hayden Lake man began an effort to oust the 56-year-old magistrate.

Chad Bennett, who was part of a 1995 child custody case in front of Marano, claims the judge was rude and arrogant.

In the hearing, Marano told Bennett and his ex-wife: “I find that both parties’ conduct has been sleazy at best.”

The most recent North Idaho judge to be voted out of office was 1st District Court Magistrate Virginia Balser in 1990.