The theme of this year’s Law Day is “Voices of Democracy.” The United States will hold its 60th presidential election this fall. So, this year’s theme appropriately emphasizes the importance of citizens understanding how the electoral process works, debating important issues in a civil and informed way and, ultimately, turning out to vote.

Understanding how elections work is essential to any basic understanding of how democracies function. Most people, hopefully, have a general understanding of how legislators and executive leaders are elected at the state and federal levels. But New Yorkers, in my experience, know very little about how judges are chosen in our state, even though most people appreciate that the courts have a profound impact on their lives.