Media Praise for Judge4Yourself.com Ratings:
From Northern Ohio Live magazine October 2007 "Awards of Achievement" issue, which honored JCRC as a finalist:
"For the past six years, the Judicial Candidates Rating Coalition has taken a unique approach to empowering area voters through its website, judge4yourself.com. . . . .JCRC is composed of the Cleveland Bar Association, the Cuyahoga County Bar Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association, the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Ohio Women's Bar Association. The coalition has allowed these organizations to jointly interview candidates, exchange views on candidates' qualifications and - for the first time - create a uniform rating system. While each organization rates candidates separately, their research results are compiled and available to the public at judge4yourself.com, as well as many area media outlets and direct mailings, allowing the chart to be reproduced millions of times, arming the public with the knowledge to elect the right civic leaders."
From CoolCleveland.com "Guide to the Candidates: Special Election 2006 Issue":
Judge for Yourself Confused by all the judges you'll be voting for? Here's the criteria for a good judge: impartiality, integrity, temperament, diligence, professional competence. This non-partisan site should help. It lists all the various bar association rankings for all the judges running for office in Cuyahoga County, with endorsements and ratings from the Cleveland Bar Association, the Cuyahoga County Bar Association, the Cuyahoga County Defense Lawyers Association, The Norman S. Minor Bar Association and the Women's Bar Association, along with endorsements from the Call & Post and the PD. http://www.judge4yourself.com
From The Plain Dealer, November 10, 2006 editorial, "Piercing the Fog":
Voters of Cuyahoga County, give your selves a hand.
On Tuesday, you refused to fall for the "name game" that has so corroded this county's elected judiciary. Instead, you elevated Cleveland Municipal Judge Joan Synenberg to the Common Pleas bench by a solid margin. You opted for quality over an empty suit with a golden ballot name. And you sent a stinging rebuke to the political "leaders" who rely on your inattention and confusion.
You fooled them by doing your homework. Many voters went to the polls armed with grids from the consortium of bar associations and legal groups known as the Judicial Candidates Ratings Coalition (www.judge4yourself.org). The Message there was crystal clear: Each of the five organizations gave Synenberg their highest rating, and her opponent the lowest.
(Click here for complete article)
Voter Praise for Judge4Yourself.com Ratings:
“This website is pure gold! This is the first time in a long time that I was able to research candidates for Judges. Information is clear and concise and unbiased. A great resource. Thanks!”
“Thank you so much for the link to Judge4Yourself.com I am so tired of people telling me how to vote - as if I have no capacity for independent thought or decision-making. It was refreshing to get a non-partisan link with just the facts - allowing me to make my own choices.”
“I for one think this is the greatest idea. Last election I took your printout with me and was able to use it in the booth. Thank you very much. I already have my copy for this election, and have made copies for all my friends. Thank you.”
“Just a note to thank you all for the information on judicial candidates. I cut it out from the West Side Sun newspaper and took time to look over each candidate’s qualifications and circled my choices. I relied heavily on the recommendations when I was not personally familiar with the candidates. It is the first time I feel that I voted intelligently for all the candidates. Their job is so important. You have provided an excellent tool and I am going to recommend that family and friends also take it into the voting booth. Thank you again.”
“This is such an excellent web site. In past elections I never had a clue who most of these people were, so it is very nice to be able to get this kind of information in an easy-to-follow format.”
“Thank you sooooo much for the time you took to put this together...I took my mailer to the polls and passed it on. At work I shared the website. Great idea! Thanks again.”
“I used the website material last night to make recommendations for my neighbors. It's superb.”
“First off, thank you so much for providing this service. These ratings are invaluable when presented with a slate of judges about whom I know little to nothing.”
“Thank you for providing this valuable service. It respects the voters, the candidates, and the entire electoral process, unlike virtually ALL other election-season communication."
"Another point you might add to your campaign for better choices is to emphasize "if you don't know, don't vote," to keep people from going strictly by name recognition. I think that many people, myself included, feel that we "should" vote in every race, but in the case of judges this can become a very risky name game. It goes against the ethic of "a reasonable citizen votes" but I think in this case a responsible citizen should abstain.”
“Thank you for the mass e-mail. Highly important topic and I appreciated the information.”
“Thanks for the info sent to me by a friend. I sent the e-mail to 46 people on my list.”
“I saved the coalition's summary sheet that was in last week's Plain Dealer and intend to use it as a guide next Tuesday.”
“My church in Solon had a booth set up this past weekend with info on issues and candidates. The JCRC grid from PD was posted and there were copies for people to take with them!”
“Just to let you know, we had a neighborhood gathering over the weekend at which Judge4Yourself received glowing compliments from a variety of persons: lawyers, business people, foundation heads, etc.”
“When I went to vote Tuesday, I noticed that everyone in line — EVERYONE — had a Judge4Yourself print-out. How cool is that? Your hard work made voting in the judicial races easy — it was confusion-free, for the first time ever. Thanks.”
“Wow, incredible results! My best guess is that Judge4Yourself made a huge difference this year. Anecdotally, I observed several people with their "cheat sheets" at our polling place yesterday, and several people told me they observed the same thing. Congratulations on making a big improvement in the process and improving the quality of our bench.”
“I got a call from a friend who had accessed the website with all the bar association recommendations and she found it very enlightening. It caused her to reconsider and changed her vote for several of the races. She heard about it on the radio. I think it is a great service and I am glad there was publicity. I hope other voters looked at the outcomes.”
“Thank you for including the Judicial Rating site in your daily e-mails. I found it invaluable in voting for judges and I passed it along to as many people as I could and they all found it helpful. As I often explain to people, it is hard to vote for judges since most do not campaign. This is the best way we have of evaluating judges. Again, thank you.”