Judicial races are on the ballot in the primary election on Tuesday, May 17. We just launched our first-ever judicial election guide to help you learn more about the candidates.
View the election guide at the very bottom of this page. Canidates are sorted by county and then by judicial race. All candidates in your county will appear on your ballot, but not all candidates are included in our guide because some did not respond to our questionnaire.
Judicial races often go unnoticed but are crucial to reforming our broken criminal legal system. These judges can reduce incarceration rates, help people seek treatment for substance use disorder, keep children out of adult prisons, and more. However, they could also make these problems even worse by increasing incarceration and denying people the support and rehabilitation they really need.
Our election guide covers candidates for state trial and appellate courts in Fayette and Jefferson Counties. The races specify different circuits and divisions. The candidates in a specific circuit and division will run against only the other candidates in that same circuit and division.
The guide is based on responses to a questionnaire developed by our legal team. It gauges candidates’ views on topics such as self-representation in court, how to best manage the backlog of cases due to COVID-19, police misconduct, and more.
The responses and non-responses are shared verbatim on our website without any editing. The ACLU of Kentucky is non-partisan, so we do not endorse candidates and do not encourage people to vote for any particular candidate. This guide is simply a survey we hope will give you some of the information you need to learn about the candidates and make an informed decision.
Election Day is Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Early voting is open Thursday, May 12, through Saturday, May 14. You do not need an excuse to vote early in-person. Visit our Voter Information Center to learn more about voting, see where to vote, view a sample ballot, and more.
We sent questionniares to 33 candidates running in state trial and appellate races in Fayette and Jefferson Counties. We received 24 responses. Some races are not listed in the election guide below because some races did not have a single candidate respond. All candidates, whether they replied or not, are listed in the two tabs at the end of the candidates responses. You should review a sample ballot to know exactly what to expect when you're in the voting booth. View a Fayette County ballot here and view a Jefferson County ballot here. Learn more at our Voter Information Center.
We started small with this election guide since it is our first. We hope to expand it to include races in more counties for future elections.