The Pa Supreme Court is the court of last resort for those that live in Pennsylvania.

This November, there will be no candidate for president, governor, senator or even representative on the Pennsylvania ballot.

Pennsylvanians will vote be voting on three members of the state Supreme Court.

While the typical voter may not think much about judicial elections, they have consequences.

Judges in Pa on their first race for office runs in a competitive partisan election. After that (excluding Magistrates), they participate in retention elections every 10 years.

These retention elections are considered nonpartisan, since party labels do not appear on the ballot.

Is it fair that a judge only needs a simple majority without competition to stay seated on the bench?

Whereas all other offices require a fair competitive (an opponent) election.

Did you know that only one judge in Pa. was not retained since the inception of retention? It is basically a lifetime appointment until forced to retire.

Retention election is an up or down vote. If more than 50% of voters cast a vote in opposition to a sitting judge, that judge will be out of the office at the end of their term. The governor, who is currently Democrat Josh Shapiro, then makes a temporary appointment to fill the seat with a special election held in the next odd year – in this case, 2027. But any appointments would need to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate, which may not confirm his picks.