In the August primary election, Island County voters will cast ballots in two Washington Supreme Court judicial elections. Decisions by the Washington Supreme Court can have significant effects on your lives. They rule on issues from the limits on government intrusion into your private affairs to the legality of local land use decisions, and everything in between.

The problem is, most of us do not have any information about the sitting justices, or the challengers running against them.

Now, voters can get information from many sources about judicial candidates at one convenient website: VotingForJudges.org. The website was created by a group of Washington lawyers interested in helping voters gather hard-to-find information about candidates.

There, you will find materials submitted by the candidates and endorsements by newspapers and other organizations. The most valuable information on the web page is the ratings from various legal associations that play close attention to judges and judicial races.

I have chaired the Judicial Evaluation Committee of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys for the past two years. This year, as we have done in the past, a group of senior prosecutors and deputy prosecutors conducted thorough evaluations of candidates running for the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Our ratings are based on a candidate’s responses to a 30-page questionnaire, multiple reference checks, and a thorough interview of each candidate.

I urge voters to check out VotingForJudges.org before voting in the two important Supreme Court races on the primary ballot.

Gregory Banks

Island County Prosecuting Attorney