Yea, this is a problem.

And this is why nothing will ever change in this city. No competition = atrophy

Another reason to switch from FPTP to Representational Apportionment.

We already have the majority of people voting for parties and not, actually, people.

"Our leaders are the finest men, and we elect them again and again..."

NY's closed primary system is terrible.

Top-two primaries make way more sense.

All the judges here where I live in Brooklyn were unopposed, and there's no primary for them. They either ran just as Dems or as both Dems and Reps. They were all pretty clearly chosen by the party machine.

It's fucking absurd. Either there should be primaries for them, or the mayor should appoint them with the consent of the city council. Judges should not be appointed by unelected party bosses.

Anyone decent is squashed and marginalized by the party they run with, and nobody is voting for a 3rd party candidate.

While the headline is depressing at first glance, it makes sense some of the candidates on this list go unchallenged. But yeah, no competition is a problem.

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Run how? The two parties submit their lists. Lists that they pick behind the scenes. Lists that are somehow identical to each other because the Dem and Rep party bosses have clearly made a deal.

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The issue is the way that judges are selected in NY. The party holds a "judicial nominating convention" at which it selects the candidates that will be on the ballot, and then they all run unopposed. There is no primary to win; there is no transparency in the party selection process. The solution you propose simply doesn't exist. This is a real problem with judicial elections in NY that does not have an easy solution.

Yep, this is right. I know one of the judges on the ballot. It took them years to win the right to be the sole candidate on the ballot. Years of attending stupid events all across the city and kissing the rings of those who actually make this decision. The whole system is absolutely fucking absurd.

There’s no primary. Did you not read the comment you replied to?

Can you just declare you are in the Democratic Party though?

Seeger-pilled

I write names like Mike Hunt as write ins on every race that’s not opposed out of principle. The majority of races on my ballot were unopposed, or had the same candidate run in two parties.

This is why it's pointless to be registered as anything except a Democrat in this city if you have any desire to vote in an election that has meaning, i.e. the Democratic primary.

Something is clearly wrong

I thought i was tripping when i read the ballot

Yea I thought that was strange. Is it not possible for a single independent to get on the ballot?

Judges, DA, AG and sheriff (in other states) positions should never be elected. Make them career positions not political

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From the top down

I refuse to be registered in any party and I refuse to vote for judges that I as an attorney know are incompetent.

I’m writing in a protest vote in all unopposed ballots.

Completely fucked. I couldn't believe my ballot.

It is they just won't win

> Either there should be primaries for them, or the mayor should appoint them with the consent of the city council. Judges should not be appointed by unelected party bosses.

I always write my name in for these bc its pull and not an election. writing my name 17 times was fun.

I write in names like “More Candidates” if i don’t know who is in that ballot.

If I know the candidate is terrible, I vote for “Golden Retriever” or “Mickey Mouse”

Beaver Falls PD would be proud.

Such as who?

Thanks, but no thanks. Some judges are very petty and have been known to take revenge against lawyers for much slighter things.

Today, I saw one name on the ballot for Justice of the Supreme Court of a judge who personally told me he or she does not care what the higher courts have ruled.

I wrote “this is a joke” across that section of the ballot.

And I didn’t do it this year, but last year I tried to loo up info on these candidate judges and there was like zero info on them at all. Like a sentence on ballotpedia. And these are the fucks who game me 15 car registration violations when I had a temp reg printed out on my dash.

>does not care what the higher courts have ruled.

Kind of depends what they mean by this. Anyway, if they don't rule correctly, doesn't that just give the losing party ammo to put in their appeal?

haha I have in the past voted for different Pokémon instead of the actual candidates.

New Yorkers deserve bad governance

I asked the poll site workers if I misunderstood the ballot - they laughed and said nope all are running unopposed.

What they mean when they say, "I don't care what the Court of Appeals said?"

>Anyway, if they don't rule correctly, doesn't that just give the losing party ammo to put in their appeal?

Do you think judges should deliberately ignore the law and force litigants into the cost and time of an appeal?

It works the same way out on Long Island when it comes to dems and republicans making deals on who to run. It’s shady all around.

It's a club and we ain't in it

Amen

They should be appointed by the governor and approved by the legislature. Right now the process has no transparency, and thats a problem.

Oh yeah let me just put this spare million dollars I have into my election fund. Good thing I can spend my time campaigning instead of like, working my job that puts food on the table. Who needs that

problem is we (as a society) have decided that the people whose entire lifes work should be dedicated to removing bias from the legal system also have to run partisan political campaigns

I just came back from voting. The nice lady gave me a run through of the ballot and how to fill it out.

Lady: “And on this one, you can select up to 12—any 12.”

Me: “But there are only 12 choices.”

Lady: “Yes…”

The sure as shit vote for it.

We shouldn't be electing judges anyway. Us trying to get judges to declare their political party and run on that ticket is sick.

I voted but refused to vote for uncontested candidates.

You can also just leave it blank as a no vote/protest vote.

LOL

These past few years have convinced me that primaries are bad

We get wackos from both sides winning the low turnout primaries, and we’re stuck with shithole candidates on both sides

Look at PA senator race - a disabled man ( feel bad for him but he has no business being a senator right now, there has to be some one else in Pa better equipped for the job) vs some tv asshole

We’re stuck with SHIT. We wouldn’t have trump and Magas if established republicans just picked their presidential candidate. We wouldn’t have MTG or Herschel Walker. These fucking extreme shitholes who are engaged with politics more than the average Joe are electing grade a shit candidates.

Soon our races will be a literal fascist vs a literal communist.

> kissing the rings of those who actually make this decision.

Can you elaborate or give an example of who these party bosses are?

Go to law school. Become a lawyer. Then become a judge. Then claim all elections are fraud and that all criminal prosecutions are witch-hunts. Then run as a Republican in NYC. This will all be a totally good use of your time, talent, and money I promise.

Aww. This is how I get votes, and my cat does as well

Under the law, yes. But many litigants will never appeal due to either or both of the cost or/and frustration of continuing in the lawsuit.

It is also bizarre for a lawyer to prepare a case within the parameters of the law when the judge does not respect or adhere to the same parameters.

Those are the rows I reserve for write-in candidates, who usually tend to be cartoons.

Over the years, Batman, Mickey Mouse, Pikachu, Homer Simpson, and Princess Celestia have gotten onto a ballot at least once.

Running unopposed is not a problem... The "solution" would be to introduce Republican candidates which is completely unnecessary and would just make things worse.

2 ways to fix this, republican party has to get candidates in every race or active chain of command.

With chain of command, if you ran unopposed last race, you have to run against the person that is under you for your seat 👀