The judges at the bottom of your ballot decide evictions, custody, bail, and more — yet most voters have never heard of them. We profile every judge on the ballot and gather their bar association ratings in one trustworthy place.
Three steps from “I have no idea who these people are” to a confident ballot.
Pick Cook, Lake, or DuPage — or look up your exact ballot by address — to see only the judges you’ll vote on.
Every judge shows their bar association evaluations side by side, in each group’s own words, color-coded so you can scan in seconds.
Check your registration, find your polling place, and head to the polls knowing exactly how you’ll vote — top to bottom.
Judicial retention is a simple Yes-or-No question — and a judge needs 60% Yes to keep the bench. With dozens of names and almost no public information, most voters skip these races or guess. That’s exactly how an unqualified judge stays in power.
We don’t tell you how to vote. We put the bar associations’ own evaluations in front of you — and link you straight to the sources, the judge’s own pages, and independent guides — so you can decide for yourself.
See how we rate & source →is what it takes to retain a judge in Illinois. Your down-ballot vote counts more than you’d think.
judges across all three counties are on the 2026 ballot.
We aggregate published evaluations from the region’s bar associations — and always link back to the original.
Plus independent voter guides: Injustice Watch and Girl, I Guess (a progressive voter guide).
Vote Qualified Judges