Judicial Retention Voter Information

Finding information for the judicial retention voting is one of the most difficult and frustrating things about Oklahoma's election system. There's often little to no information to find out about the justices from the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Court of Civil Appeals, and Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Oklahoma Republican Party recently put out the following voter guide on these races, showing the party registration of the judges, and which Governor appointed them to their current office. I will post their appointment date below the OKGOP guide.

Oklahoma Supreme Court
James E. Edmondson - appointed in 2003 by Gov. Henry (D)
Yvonne Kauger - appointed March 14th, 1984 by Gov. Nigh (D)
Noma D. Gurich - appointed February 15th, 2011 by Gov. Henry (D)
Patrick Wyrick - appointed February 9th, 2017 by Gov. Fallin (R)

Court of Civil Appeals
Robert Bell - appointed in June 2005 by Gov. Henry (D)
Kenneth L. Buettner - appointed February 26th, 1996 by Gov. Keating (R)
Brian Jack Goree - appointed in 2012 by Gov. Fallin (R)
E. Bay Mitchell - appointed in 2002 by Gov. Keating (R)
Barbara Green Swinton - appointed September 16th, 2016 by Gov. Fallin (R)

Court of Criminal Appeals
Scott Rowland - appointed November 2017 by Gov. Fallin (R)
David Lewis - appointed August 4th, 2005 by Gov. Henry (D)
Dana Kuehn - appointed October 2nd, 2017 by Gov. Fallin (R)

The Oklahoma Bar Association has put together a website that gives a little bit of detail, mainly biographical, on each of these judges. You can visit that here.

Like I said, it is difficult to find good information on why to vote for or against retaining these judges. No judge has ever lost a retention vote.

MY PICKS
I have heard good things about Justice Wyrick, and Judges Goree, Rowland and Kuehn, and will vote for retaining them. I will vote against the rest unless convinced otherwise between now and Tuesday.

If by a miracle any of them are not retained, the next Governor (hopefully Kevin Stitt) would appoint a new replacement.