Scrap retention elections?

The Recorder has Proposed Constitutional Amendment Would Scrap Many Appellate Retention Elections -- Santa Cruz Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, a former longtime elections official, said uncontested appellate justice elections add unnecessary costs and create voter confusion and fatigue.

• The process proposed by Pellerin is similar to one California employs for trial court judges. Unchallenged superior court judges do not appear on the ballot and are deemed reelected unless opposed residents gather enough signatures—somewhere between 100 and 600 depending on the number of registered voters in a county—to place the jurist's name before voters.
• Under Pellerin's Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8, appellate court justices would not have to appear on a ballot unless opponents submit a qualifying petition. The amendment doesn't specify how many signatures would be needed to trigger a ballot appearance. Pellerin, who chairs the Assembly Elections Committee, said the exact number would be decided on in separate legislation if ACA 8 passes the Legislature and is approved by voters statewide, as required to take effect.
• Only three justices—the Supreme Court's Rose Bird, Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin in 1986—have been ousted by voters in nearly 100 years of retention elections in California, according to the Assembly Elections Committee.