Judges in Colorado are appointed–but in order to stay on the bench, they must be voted on periodically in order to stay on the bench.
This year, as often, there are a lot of judges on the ballot and most people don’t know anything about them. The Equal Justice Foundation specializes in observing judges and making recommendations. Their recommendations follow.
From the EJF newsletter on their method:
In 2024 there are 130 eligible judges in Colorado but only 116 are actually standing for retention. The 14 judges who chose not to stand for retention will step down or retire on January 7, 2025. Of the 116 judges reviewed by the judicial performance commissions only one was judged not to have met their standards, and thus should be voted out.
The EJF has long been independently tracking judicial performance and postulates that the number of bad judges is considerably more than one. Inasmuch as the judicial performance commissions seek input from the attorneys who know the judges, in 2012 we began compiling our own tabulation of good and bad judges based solely on the attorney votes reported to the separate commissions; in essence a jury of the judge’s peers. That provides a simple to understand and brief statement of the judge’s performance, and what the attorneys who know the judge best think of them.
By our measure (see attachment), 19 of the 116 judges standing for retention in 2024 should not be retained and voted off the bench. The performance of 36 more is found to be marginal at best. Conversely, attorneys rated 18 judges as outstanding.
The El Paso GOP also has recommendations on judges; they can be found here. (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)
A note on Colorado Supreme Court justices.
On December 19, 2023 the Colorado Supreme Court voted to keep Trump off the Colorado ballot. The ruling was 4-3, with Chief Justice Boatright and Justice Berkenkotter dissenting and Marquez voting yes. I’d reverse the EJF’s recommendations on Boatright and Marquez.
The New York Post wrote an article on the four who voted to remove. Very enlightening.
Appellate, 4th Judicial, and El Paso County Judges
There are a couple worth retaining perhaps, but for most part they are rated Marginal or Do Not Retain. It’s the worst overall record I’ve seen. You can’t go wrong voting NO on all. In the end, I’ve not seen a single judge voted off the bench, but we can send a message.
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