Elections Improve Support for State Trial Court Judges in the United States

Do constituents care how judges are chosen? We conduct two nationally representative survey experiments focusing on state trial courts. Our first study indicates that respondents prefer judges who are elected to those who are appointed, though this does not affect their perceptions of the judiciary’s legitimacy. Our second study explores three potential mechanisms: efficacy, experience with democracy, and perceived ideological proximity. We find evidence that real-world experience with judicial elections is associated with a preference for such elections, but we do not find evidence for other mechanisms. Our study offers important new evidence for assessing proposed reforms to judicial selection.