2022 election next week

 

Updated from last month:  The part of any ballot that finds me generally unprepared is the judicial section, particularly the down ballot candidates.  So I consult the website Judge4yourself for candidate ratings.  The ratings also include endorsements by cleveland.com, which is my rule-of-thumb for choosing the other (non-endorsed) candidate.  However, this year, there are a couple of judicial candidates who either wouldn't respond to any questions or who got such negatives from the other resources that I would make an exception and vote for the cleveland.com-endorsed candidate (i.e., J Synenberg and Wanda Jones).  Speaking for myself, I either print out the lists or jot the preferred names down on a notepad, as I don't otherwise remember most of their names when I go to vote. 

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2022 Election cycle notes

 

Ohio Voter registration deadline is today Oct. 11. 

The part of any ballot that finds me generally unprepared is the judicial section, particularly the down ballot candidates.  So I consult the website Judge4yourself for candidate ratings.  The ratings also include endorsements by cleveland.com, which is my rule-of-thumb for choosing the other candidate -- in most cases.  This year, there are a couple of judicial candidates who either wouldn't respond to any questions or who got such negatives from the other resources that I would make an exception and vote for the cleveland.com-endorsed candidate (i.e., J Synenberg and Wanda Jones).  Speaking for myself, I either print out the lists or jot the preferred names down on a notepad, as I don't otherwise remember most of their names when I go to vote. 

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On the ballot next week: judges

Next Tuesday is Election Day. On the Cuyahoga County ballot are two municipal judge races:

Marilyn B. Cassidy vs Jack Russo

and

Ronald J.H. O'Leary vs W. Moná Scott

The website Judge4Yourself.com is a service of the Judicial Candidates Rating Coalition, and the recommendations go to Cassidy and O'Leary.  I am never happy to read that a candidate has been recommended or endorsed by the Editorial Board of cleveland.com, but the other positive ratings appear consistent.  

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Judicial candidates

RE-POSTED from Oct 22

Just days away from the Nov 6 election, time to prepare to vote. You can find your sample ballot for Cuyahoga County here. You should have your Cuyahoga County voter registration postcard at hand with your precinct details. (For Lake County voters, go here. For Geauga County voters, go here.)

Most of the candidate lists with recommendations are focused on the top of the ticket races. But I’ve been researching judicial candidates and found some ratings, endorsements, and report cards. One source was the <Judge4yourself> website, which collects ratings from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associationm the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association, and the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.

But it also specifies which candidates receive an endorsement from the Editorial Board of the PD / cleveland.com. Since there will be some Tea Party readers who would not consider a cleveland.com endorsement as a positive, I searched further.  

The <Ohio.ivoteconservative> website represents the collective recommendations of its signatories, many of which Tea Party members will recognize. If you visit their home page and fill in three boxes of info, you will get a list of recommended candidates who will appear on your ballot. It prints out on one page, so you can take it with you when you go to vote. Below is the list of recommended judicial candidates in a downtown Cleveland precinct (if you vote elsewhere, including in another county, you’ll want to go the website and enter your details to get your list of recommended candidates.):

Oh Supreme Court (1/1/19)

  Craig Baldwin

Oh Supreme Court (1/2/19)

  Mary Degenaro

  

Ohio Court Of Appeals #8

  Raymond Headen

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/1/19)

  Jeffrery C. Sindelar Jr

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/2/19)

  Bradley Hull IV

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/3/19)

  Lorraine Coyne

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/5/19)

  Lon Cherie D. Billingsley

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/6/19)

  Wanda C. Jones

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/7/19)

  Kathleen Ann Sutula

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/8/19)

  Jarrett J. Northup

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/9/19)

  Brian Darling

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/11/19)

  Lori Anne Dyke

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/1/19)

  Denise Nancy Rini

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Preparing to vote / judicial candidates

With just over 2 weeks to go before the Nov 6 election, time to prepare to vote. You can find your sample ballot for Cuyahoga County here. You should have your Cuyahoga County voter registration postcard at hand with your precinct details. (For Lake County voters, go here. For Geauga County voters, go here.)

Most of the candidate lists with recommendations are focused on the top of the ticket races. But I’ve been researching judicial candidates and found some ratings, endorsements, and report cards. One source was the <Judge4yourself> website, which collects ratings from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associationm the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association, and the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.

But it also specifies which candidates receive an endorsement from the Editorial Board of the PD / cleveland.com. Since there will be some Tea Party readers who would not consider a cleveland.com endorsement as a positive, I searched further.  

The <Ohio.ivoteconservative> website represents the collective recommendations of its signatories, many of which Tea Party members will recognize. If you visit their home page and fill in three boxes of info, you will get a list of recommended candidates who will appear on your ballot. It prints out on one page, so you can take it with you when you go to vote. Below is the list of recommended judicial candidates in a downtown Cleveland precinct (if you vote elsewhere, including in another county, you’ll want to go the website and enter your details to get your list of recommended candidates.):

Oh Supreme Court (1/1/19)

  Craig Baldwin

Oh Supreme Court (1/2/19)

  Mary Degenaro

  

Ohio Court Of Appeals #8

  Raymond Headen

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/1/19)

  Jeffrery C. Sindelar Jr

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/2/19)

  Bradley Hull IV

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/3/19)

  Lorraine Coyne

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/5/19)

  Lon Cherie D. Billingsley

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/6/19)

  Wanda C. Jones

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/7/19)

  Kathleen Ann Sutula

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/8/19)

  Jarrett J. Northup

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/9/19)

  Brian Darling

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/11/19)

  Lori Anne Dyke

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/1/19)

  Denise Nancy Rini

I’ll re-post this information shortly before Election Day.

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Get ready to cast your ballot next Tuesday

Review your sample ballot online at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website here. You will need the information on your voter’s postcard, showing your city, precinct, and ward. There’s a drop-down for “Party” but there’s only one choice, since it’s a federal election: “nonpartisan.” 

To access the ballot, you will need Adobe Reader to open the pdf file. You can review down-ballot candidates, judges, and an income tax levy. And as I posted before, you can look at a composite report card for some of the judicial candidates (but not all of them) at Judge4Yourself here. 

Lake County Board of Elections is here. 

Geauga County Board of Elections is here.

Lorain County Board of Elections is here.

Summit County Board of Elections is here.

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Electing judges

art credit: wordpress.com

Election Day approaches, and most of the attention has been going to the Presidential race. But in Cuyahoga County, voters will also be choosing judges for the state Supreme Court, Common Pleas, etc. I am usually not up to speed on many of the candidates, and unless you follow court decisions closely, you might be interested in one online resource that collects ratings for judicial candidates. The Judge4Yourself site is here. I google check a few names, print the page out and take it with me to the polling place. 

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