Reply #8: The way it's done in Alaska

[Blue_In_AK]

is that when a judicial vacancy comes up, our Judicial Council, which is made up of some lawyers and some lay people, presents names of qualified applicants (they're rated by the lawyers in the community) to the governor who then appoints his choice. After the appointment, they come up periodically for a retention election. Usually, they are retained, but there have been a few instances where a judge was just so bad that the citizens vote them out of office. This system has seemed to work quite well for us.