Experts said Florida voters will need to do a bit more research in order to learn more about the lower court judges and Florida Supreme Court Justices on this year’s midterm ballot.

Florida’s Supreme Court has the final say on interpretation of state law. This year, five of the seven justices are up for merit retention.

Two years after they’re appointed by the governor, justices face a retention vote. Then, another one every six years after that. If a justice were to lose, then the gubernatorial election winner would appoint another justice to the vacant seat.

Historically, no appellate judge or justice has ever lost in a retention election.

Circuit Court Judges and state supreme court justices can only register as No Affiliation Party candidates, which could make it difficult for some voters to understand how they may rule.

“The problem being is they’re prevented by judicial ethics from stating a lot of things that would show how they would rule,” Barbara Lanning, the Co-President of the League of Women Voters of Orange County said.

Lanning said the nonpartisan organization’s Vote 411 website can help voters to research them.

The website includes links to the Florida Bar website, a merit retention poll from Florida Bar members and a series of responses from some judges and justices.

Stetson Law Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscsy said another great tool to use to research judges and justices is the Florida Bar Association website.

“For lower court judges, the Florida bar has candidate statements on their website and you can look that up,” Torres-Spelliscsy said. “[In the website major cases section, voters] can see how the justices up for retention voted in cases that [they] care about.”

She also suggested using The American Constitution Society website because it has biographies of each justice for retention.

Torres-Spelliscsy said who appointed the justice can help give more insight about them.

Three out of the five justices up for retention were appointed by then-Republican Governor Charlie Christ, Justice Jorge Labarga, Justice Ricky Polston and Justice Charles T. Canady.

Governor Ron DeSantis appointed the other two, Justice John D. Couriel and Justice Jamie Grosshans,.