We are selected, but I grew up in California and in San Francisco and there was a system of electing judges.
Nobody wants a judge to be subject to the political whim of the moment.
But once the person is selected, at that point that person is independent.
At least there's a political input, but when you put on the robe, at that point the politics is over.
Judges are appointed often through the political process.
Well, just that there would be somebody in the office and the voters - it was more or less an understanding in the entire community, as long as that person was doing a good job on the merits, nobody was going to run against him.