By Denise Torres and Lee Hunt

American political scientist Larry J. Sabato said, "Every election is determined by the people who show up."

Showing up – and voting – are particularly important for judicial retention races. Under state law, once a New Mexico Supreme Court Justice, Court of Appeals Judge, District Judge or Metropolitan Court Judge has won a partisan election, they go into our judicial retention system. When their term expires, a judge stands for retention. They do not face another candidate, but instead are either retained or not retained by voters. Each judge must receive 57 percent voter approval to remain on the bench.

The concept behind this system is that judges will improve their performance on the bench as they gain experience, and that voters should be able to assess their performance in deciding whether to retain them.

The judicial retention races are typically near the end of the ballot, so in many instances only about three out of every four voters bothers to cast a ballot in these elections.
The reasons why voters do not participate are varied, but one major factor may be a lack of knowledge. How is a voter to know whether a judge is performing well enough to deserve a "retain" vote?

That is where the New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (JPEC) comes in.
JPEC was created by the New Mexico Supreme Court to help judges improve their performance on the bench and to provide useful, credible information to voters on judges standing for retention.

Our nonpartisan volunteer Commission evaluates judges on their overall performance, including their legal ability, fairness, communication skills and their preparation, attentiveness, temperament and control over proceedings.

We rely on confidential surveys distributed to groups that come into regular contact with the judge and tabulated by an independent market research firm. These groups include court staff; other judges; attorneys, resource staff such as law enforcement officers, CASA volunteers, CYFD, and interpreters; and, when appropriate, jurors.

JPEC also considers statistics from the Administrative Office of the Courts, including caseloads, the time it take the judge to resolve cases, and the reasons a judge is excused from hearing a case.

In addition, we meet one-on-one with each judge being evaluated to review the results of the confidential surveys as well as their self-assessment of their overall performance.

This year, we are pleased to recommend voters retain 35 of 39 judges who are standing for retention. The other four judicial retention candidates have not served sufficient time for JPEC to make a recommendation to voters.

Our recommendations are to retain all appellate judges, including Honorable Supreme Court Justice Briana H. Zamora, and Honorable New Mexico Court of Appeals Judges Jennifer L. Attrep, Megan P. Duffy and Shammara H. Henderson.

In the Sixth Judicial District, serving Grant, Hidalgo and Luna counties, we recommend retaining the Honorable James B. "Jim" Foy.

Full evaluations and more information are available on our website, www.nmjpec.org , or you can call 1-800-687-3417.

Please cast a ballot in all elections in which you are eligible to vote, including the judicial retention elections. Your vote does matter.

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Denise Torres is an Albuquerque attorney and chair and Lee Hunt is a Santa Fe attorney and vice chair of the New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission.