On a typical ballot, presidential candidates are listed first. They are followed by senate and congressional candidates, state office seekers, municipal and local candidates and, at the end of the line, judges. Perhaps they're in a hurry. Voters spend about three minutes in the booth, said Michael E. Lavelle, former chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. That may be long enough for the well-informed voter to cast ballots for 100 people but many are not punching the entire ballot, he said.
Time is definitely a factor.
Orr said he expects judicial falloff to be more pronounced this year than in 1998 because more voters tend to go to the polls in presidential election years than in non-presidential ones. It probably does not serve democracy well to have ballots so long that one of the themes of the electorate is that they won't vote. The bottom line is that the public gets screwed. Because voters generally do not know much about the candidates running for the bench, if they vote in judicial elections they tend to make selections based solely on surnames. And in Chicago, an Irish name goes far.