JUDICIAL QUANDARY: Amid Indiana’s ‘crazy quilt system’ for choosing judges, voters have few choices

By Marilyn Odendahl The Indiana Citizen May 1, 2024 Hoosiers have an adage: If you don’t like the weather in Indiana, wait a few minutes. It will change. The same could be said about the judiciary: If you don’t like how your county selects judges, drive a few miles and you’ll find a different process. A majority of the trial court judges in Indiana are elected by the voters in partisan races. In Allen County, the elections are partisan for circuit court and nonpartisan for superior court while in Vanderburgh County, all the judicial races are nonpartisan. And in Lake, Marion and St. Joseph counties, superior court judges are appointed through merit selection. Despite the vari ...