When it comes to age on the ballot, Texas didn’t wait until 2024 to weigh in.

Asked to let judges stay on the bench until they’re 79 years old — a year younger than President Joe Biden — Texas voters soundly rejected the proposal in Tuesday’s elections, a defeat that drew new attention to issues of age and fitness for office in the U.S.

“Age is front of mind for American voters in a way that it has not traditionally been and they are nervous about it,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

Others cautioned against broader takeaways. At least four other states have rejected similar proposals over the last decade, according to the National Center for State Courts. And states that have passed the measures have mostly done so in close votes.

  • Joe-Blow240@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    It’s long past time to get the generation of lead-induced dementia patients out of office. Slow Biden, Glitch McConnell, and all of their geriatric ilk need to go.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      An age limit on elderly judges is critical where they get appointed for life.

      At least these other geriatric ilk have to get re-elected periodically. In previous years I would have said to trust the voters to eventually come to the right conclusion, but elections are really crazy these days

      • fireweed@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Judicial elections are barely even elections. Independent voting guides never mention them and news media rarely profile or interview them (or if they do it’s not prominently compared to other local races). Plus at least in my experience incumbent judges usually run unopposed. I also think they have very strong restrictions on what they can/can’t say while campaigning so voters can’t even do their own research properly (especially for new judges, who don’t have much of a track record). Basically it’s near impossible to be an educated voter when it comes to judges, so maybe they’re better off being appointed.

        • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          I mean I know lead is bad for you but the body does process it over time and leaded gas has been banned since the 70s. You can’t just disqualify everyone who was alive in the 70s because there was potential for lead exposure.

          One would hope that such a bold and specific claim as “the President and Senate Minority Leader have lead-induced dementia” would have…a single shred of specific evidence.

          • Joe-Blow240@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Lead poisoning causes permanent irreversible brain damage that manifests in the form of learning disability and behavioral disorders.

            • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Ok so the claim is that the president and Senate minority leader got permanent irreversible brain damage in the 70s?

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Don’t forget leaded paint. It was also banned in those decades but any house/building from before then is potentially contaminated with lead paint. While interior paint has gotten a lot of attention, “encapsulating” it is not perfect nor permanent and the building is still surrounded by contaminated soil from exterior paint.

            And prop planes … leaded fuel not banned yet

            The Wikipedia article is pretty scary, especially

            According to a study, half of the US population has been exposed to substantially detrimental lead levels in early childhood – mainly from car exhaust whose lead pollution peaked in the 1970s and caused widespread loss in cognitive ability.