Comment on Panel tables plan for judges to be elected with party labels

JACKSON (AP) – A House committee is setting aside a proposal to have Mississippi’s judges run as Democrats and Republicans. The House Judiciary A Committee, on a split voice vote on Tuesday, tabled House Bill 496. Mississippi switched from partisan to nonpartisan judicial elections in 1994. However, House Speaker Pro Tem Greg Snowden, a Meridian Republican, says he thinks the state should switch back. Snowden says the current judicial election structure is flawed because when more than two candidates run for a judgeship, runoff elections are held three weeks after the general election.