Educate yourself before you vote!

The primary elections are over, but now comes the best and most important part of our judicial election system: the general elections where new judges are going to be elected for the next six years.
It is well known that the judicial elections are considered part of the legal profession and that generally only attorneys are aware of who’s who and campaign for the judges they want on the bench.
In the recent primary election of two weeks ago, we unfortunately saw several corrupt judges being re-elected perhaps without the average voter knowing who they voted for or, if in fact, they even voted for those judges.
Judicial races are very important because the life and the future of many people appearing in court depend only on that judge’s decision and ruling.
We urge the community, in this election, to not let their choice lie in the hands of their attorneys, their legal secretary or office personnel; we urge the community to pay attention to whom they are electing to the bench.
Take for example former judge Douglas Smith who sentenced a defendant to several years behind bars and later doubled the sentence because the defendant “may commit the same crime after he comes out of prison,” becoming a mind reader and sentencing the defendant for a crime he may or may not ever repeat after he spends ten years behind bars.
That former judge had more than one hundred complaints and more reversed rulings from the Nevada Supreme Court than anyone else, but he kept getting re-elected because the people, the voters, the constituents, were not aware of his bad record.
Corrupt judges keep getting elected when they are “friends” with the lawyers that appear before them. The lawyers garner votes from their family and friends, and round and round it goes until the corrupt judge finally decides to retire and enjoy his salary for the rest of his life paid by you and me, the taxpayers, regardless of his bad record.
We have seen people come to this newspaper asking for help because a judge in their case did not do the right thing, but when we ask who the judge was, they did not know the name of the judge.
Every judge has their name in big letters below their bench and some people cannot even tell us the name of their judge. You must read that name and remember it if you ever have a complaint.
We can’t imagine anyone not knowing who their judge is, regardless of how little experience they may have with the judicial system. But many people depend on their attorney to choose the next judges in the elections and do not care about learning anything about them. Until a ruling does not go their way in the courtroom and then they come to the Las Vegas Tribune crying for help, when it is too late.
Judges or judge candidates that don’t reveal who their campaign manager is may be hiding something for a good (read that bad) reason.
There is no reason why corrupt judges with a bad record have to keep being re-elected and be allowed to keep abusing the people who have the misfortune of appearing before them.
Family Court judges can destroy the life of many of the people that have the misfortune to appear before them by not following the law.
Criminal court judges can ruin the life of those appearing before them by sending them to prison for a crime they may or may not have
committed.
Watch television, read newspaper articles and see how many people have been let out of prison after spending a long time behind bars for a crime they have not committed; that is the result of corrupt judges that sell their soul for the best and highest campaign contribution.
The best thing to do is to learn as much as you can about a candidate, not only a judicial candidate but all candidates, in all races. Get to be as well-informed as possible in order to make the best decisions about all the candidates and their campaign managers, who in most cases are often more guilty of corruption than the candidate.
We expect the most out of any candidate and we expect them to all be responsible in any race.
But unfortunately, they are not all responsible and it is our duty to select the best candidates for any position; we should not rely on campaign managers to tell us who we should vote for.
Don’t forget to take responsibility for what is your duty as a good American citizen and learn as much as possible about the candidates for whom you are going to vote.
It is our duty to elect the right person to any office — remember, someday our life may depend on having the right person — and we hope we won’t have to regret our choice.