BE MORE JUDGMENTAL

Many voters, when they glance over the long lists of unfamiliar names in judicial races, throw up their hands and skip the whole thing. That’s actually not a bad choice — far better than voting for every Irish name you see — but there’s an even better one for conscientious voters: judge4yourself.com.

With the May 4 primary looming (and early voting already started), the four bar associations active in Cuyahoga County have again cranked up their judicial rating website. Judge4yourself is sponsored by the Judicial Candidates Ratings Coalition, comprising the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Ohio Women’s Bar Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association and the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers.

At the site, the JCRC posts each organization’s rating of the candidate and assigns each a composite score from 0-4. It also indicates which candidates if any have been endorsed by the Plain Dealer or the Call & Post. Candidate bios detail their educational and professional backgrounds. Ratings for the candidates in the five judicial seats that have primary contests have been posted. That includes a common-pleas judgeship that has seven applicants, so it’s clear that the information provided is helpful in thinning the field. — Anastasia Pantsios