Don't overlook the importance of judgeships

With regard to the midterm elections, I'd like to draw voters' attention to an aspect of the ballot which many ignore - the judgeships. They are down-ballot and include many names that no one knows anything about. For this reason voters often skip voting for them.

There are about 400 judges on the Circuit Court of Cook County, and of that number, no more than twenty (about 5 percent) are Republicans or Independents. Using the 2016 Presidential Election results as a proxy for all citizens, we know that 74.4 percent of the vote in Cook County went to Democrat Hillary Clinton; 21.4 percent went to Republican, Mr. Donald Trump; and 4.2 percent went to others. Thus, we see that judges with a Republican background and philosophy are way under-represented in the Cook County Courts. Knowing that fairness, equity, and diversity are virtues espoused by the Democrat Party, I'm sure that even Democrats would agree that at least 25 percent - not the current 5 percent - of the county's judges should be Republicans and/or Independents.

With this in mind, Northwest Suburban voters have a chance to partially correct this imbalance in November.

They can do it by voting for the three Republicans who are candidates for three seats in the 13th Judicial Sub-Circuit: Gary Seyring, Dan Fitzpatrick, and Christine Svenson. All are well-qualified, decent people who have been authenticated by the relevant bar associations.

This historical dominance of the Democrats in county positions has proved unhealthy. So I ask that, to counter this dominance and to correct an inequity that is insulting to Cook County citizens, voters please pay attention to the judicial section of the ballot in November and vote to place more Republicans in the county judiciary.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg