Distance from the Bench and Retention Voting Behavior: A Comparison of Trial Court and Appellate Court Retention Elections

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Abstract
This article examines an oft-repeated yet untested assumption about judicial retention elections: appellate court elections and trial court elections are so similar that a single explanation will suffice. Reported herein is a comparison of appellate and trial court retention elections in 10 states over the 1964-1988 time period. Comparisons of both the affirmative vote and roll-off begin with the basic aspects of each and then are expanded to include the relationships with judicial district characteristics, such as population. We conclude that while a single successful model of voting behavior in judicial retention elections would probably explain considerable variation in both trial and appellate court retention elections, there are differences between the levels which should be built into the model. In terms of differences, the clear and unquestioned difference between trial court and appellate court retention elections involves inter-judge differences. Appellate judges who are on the same retention ballot are much more likely to receive the same affirmative vote than are trial court judges who are on the same ballot.