I’ve not seen a single news article in 5 years highlight the huge increase in voter participation that’s occurred in judicial races since we added party affiliation to the ballot. In the 2020 Supreme Court races the undervote was 20% (25% for Ct of Appeals). Voters didn’t have relevant info on the candidates, so they left the ballot blank. In 2022, with party ID on the ballot, that undervote dropped to 2%. More people voted when they knew the candidates & had a signal of what they stood for. @DJSwearingenOH and I predicted this would happen when we sponsored HB149 in 2021. We brought in an expert academic to back us up. We said party ID would likely help the GOP in GOP areas and would help Dems in Dem areas, but that our main goal was giving voters the info they keep telling us they want. The executive director of the Ohio Judicial Conference testified that we were lying, just carrying water for the Republican Party, and told our colleagues not to believe us. The slant of all the media coverage was much the same. A couple other big organizations threw their weight behind opposing the bill. But we got it done. It’s one of the improvements I’m most proud of from my legislative career, it’s still making our judicial elections better, and I’m glad this frivolous suit is finally over.