Judges must do a better job of educating the public about their roles in a democracy to counteract the politicization of state judicial elections, Iowa’s chief justice said on Monday.

“There is an abundance of misinformation about the courts,” Iowa chief justice Mark Cady told the first-ever “Fair Courts State Summit” in Washington, attended by advocates for judicial independence. “We need to give voters the tools” to understand and appreciate the need for fair and impartial courts, he said.