Every couple of years, Chicagoland voters are faced with the same dilemma: How to pick from dozens of judicial candidates?

Source: cookcountyjudges.org.

Luckily, there's help.

First, the basics: Why do we have to vote for all these judges? Find our explainer here.

Second: How does a voter choose?

One long-time source of help: the ratings found at the voteforjudges.org Web site. The site compiles candidate evaluations done by about a dozen Chicago-area bar associations, in cooperation with the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening. Find a summary of the 2024 general-election candidate ratings here.

The ratings have at least one drawback: In some cases (as shown below), bar associations provide similar, favorable ratings for two or more competing candidates—so the choice isn't obvious.

For those positions, voters can do a deeper dive on particular candidates—thanks to candidate profiles provided by a group called Injustice Watch. For the 2024 general election, search for candidates' names in Injustice Watch's rundown here.

Want to learn more about evaluations? See Injustice Watch's 2018 piece by Emily Hoerner and Jeanne Kuang. Hoerner and Kuang looked into the challenges faced by bar associations that rate judicial candidates.

Helpfully, Inside Chicago Government has a video showing how to use the judicial candidate ratings. We made it some years ago, but the routine is unchanged. And it's on YouTube.

One more thing: Want to see your ballot before going to vote? Chicagoans can visit the Web site of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, and look for "Your Voter Information." You can download your ballot, mark it up, and take it along when you vote.