Voters made a good case on Election Day that they're up to the job of electing appellate judges.
They chose competent, qualified women and men for openings on the state Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, and most voters marched into the thicket of a novel, 13-candidate instant runoff voting contest - the first modern-era statewide use of that voting method in the United States - and emerged without a scratch.
Results in that IRV race won't be known for weeks - the "instant" part definitely doesn't apply to vote-counting - but voter participation was encouraging, and the two finalists selected from the bewilderingly large field are good, solid choices. The next test comes in the counting stage - more about that below.
Meanwhile, North Carolina can take satisfaction from a relatively low-key, low-cost (thanks to public financing, which was widely accepted by court candidates) and non-partisan campaign (officially non-partisan in theory, and reasonably non-partisan in practice).
That's not always the case in other states, and there's been a lot of tinkering with methods of selection and election. Here, voters choose judges for the 15-member Court of Appeals and the seven-member Supreme Court, as well as local-level District and Superior Court judges. The system still may not be ideal, but recent improvements have made the need for further change less urgent.
Tuesday's results help make the point. At the top of the judicial ladder was a single seat on the Supreme Court. It went to Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson of Raleigh, by a relatively narrow but convincing margin. Her worthy opponent was fellow Appeals Court Judge Robert C. "Bob" Hunter of Marion. This page, in its editorial endorsements, preferred Hunter's greater experience, but Jackson is energetic and qualified to take on the Supreme challenge. A key test for her and all the other justices will come if the new legislature's redistricting plan lands on the court's doorstep for a final yea or nay. Any appearance of political partisanship diminishes the court's standing.
At the Appeals Court, Judge Ann Marie Calabria of Morrisville campaigned to retain her seat in a race against Wake District Court Judge Jane Gray. Calabria won handily, as did - thank you, voters - fellow Appeals Court incumbent Rick Elmore of Raleigh. He was up against Selma resident Steven Walker, who ran as an unabashed conservative and whose legal experience is limited. Although Walker led the primary in May and had fervent supporters, Elmore, the much more sensible choice, won easily on Tuesday. And current Appeals Court Judge Martha Geer of Raleigh ran up a big margin in defeating challenger Dean R. Poirier of Mount Olive.
Now, about that instant runoff ... Finishing first and second in this Appeals Court race were current Judge Cressie Thigpen (with about 20 percent) and former Judge Doug McCullough (15 percent). Both are highly qualified. The outcome, for which counting won't begin until Nov. 29, hinges on the alternate choices that voters made Tuesday. Conceivably, McCullough was the second or third choice of enough voters to unseat Thigpen.
In any event, the winner will wind up with more votes than he had in the first round, which is good for democracy. Yet elections officials will have to hand-sort votes (nearly 2 million were cast in the race) and it's unclear how swiftly or smoothly counting will proceed. When it's done, a candid assessment of the pros and cons will be in order, before casting the deciding vote on statewide instant runoffs.
