Cook County judges keep their seats

Talk about job security. From the looks of the retention results for judges in Tuesday's election, the judiciary in Northwest suburban Cook County has it.

Judges must get approval from 60 percent of voters to retain their seats on the bench. Most received "yes" votes equal to 10 percentage points or more above the minimum requirement. Even local judges whom area bar associations rated as "unqualified" or "not recommended" retained their seats by between 3 and 6 percentage points.

In contested races, Pamela Elizabeth Loza prevailed over Laura J. Morask in the race for the 12th subcircuit with 54 percent of the unofficial vote tallies to Morask's nearly 46 percent.

In two closely contested races for the 13th subcircuit, Annie O'Donnell appears to have garnered just over 50 percent of the vote to beat Ann Catherine Brady. Margarita Kulys Hoffman received about 51 percent of the vote to Carol L. Barnes' 49 percent.