Voters from the Jacksonville area to Hernando County on the Gulf of Mexico are being asked whether seven judges on the 5th District Court of Appeal should keep their jobs.
Decisions on those judges , most of whom have ties to Duval County, are almost totally overshadowed by the weighty national choices made in the same Nov. 5 general election.
But the court is the frontline of review for challenging mistakes by local judges in a region holding more than five million Floridians, and “merit retention” votes are the state’s system to decide whether DCA judges deserve six more years in office. Here’s some background on the court and the judges on the ballot.
What is the 5 th District Court of Appeal?
The 12-judge court, which is based in Daytona Beach , handles appeals from the Fourth Judicial Circuit (Duval, Nassau and Clay counties); Fifth Circuit (Lake, Marion, Sumter, Citrus and Hernando counties); Seventh Circuit (Putnam, St. Johns, Flagler and Volusia counties); and 18th Circuit (Brevard and Seminole counties).
Who is Judge Joe Boatwright?
Boatwright was a Putnam County judge from 2013 until the end of 2022, when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the appeals court…