In the midst of the highly publicized races for President and United State Senate, there is a little-known ballot question that will appear on all Pennsylvania voters ballots Tuesday.
(Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Supreme Court)
This ballot question asks whether or not the retirement age for Pennsylvania judges should be raised to 75 years old.
The question will appear in the following format: “Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that justices of the Supreme Court, judges and magisterial district judges be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75 years?”
Currently, Pennsylvania judges are forced to retire on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 70.
The referendum was actually on the ballot in April when it was asked like this: “Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that justices of the Supreme Court, judges and justices of the peace (known as magisterial district judges) be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75, instead of the current requirement that they be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 70?”
And while the measure was defeated in April, it didn’t count.
That’s because in the weeks leading up to the primary, the Pennsylvania State Legislature decided to change the question language and move the referendum to November. But at that point, the ballots were already made up and the question went ahead in the primary despite it being all for nothing.
So now, with the different language, Pennsylvanians will again be asked to vote on whether or not to raise judge’s retirement age to 70.