About the Project
For the last several years, The Marshall Project has been answering residents’ questions about the Cuyahoga County court system and its leadership. Many residents wanted to know more about judges’ decision-making habits.
Too often, Cuyahoga County residents said they opt-out of voting for judges — even if they cast a ballot in the presidential election — because they do not have enough information to make a decision. In 2020, nearly 30% didn’t vote in judicial contests. For Cleveland voters, the number who skipped voting for judges was even higher.
Ahead of the primary, The Marshall Project and local partner Signal Cleveland created a judge guide to fill this critical information gap. The first iteration of the guide provided residents with profiles of current judges and judicial nominees. Ahead of the election, we will be updating the guide with more information.
To make sure the guide adequately addressed residents’ needs, we solicited their input on each step of the process — from data collection, to design, and distribution. Now, residents can make an informed choice on election day.
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