More than 70 years ago Missouri voters did something that 34 other states have since adopted. After Tom Pendergast tried to buy an election of a Supreme Court judge, Missouri voters decided to set up a judicial nomination commission to interview candidates and pick a pool of three nominees from which the Governor may select.
Under the Missouri Plan, a non-partisan commission reviews candidates for a judicial vacancy. The commission sends the governor a list of candidates considered best qualified to which the governor then has sixty days to select a candidate from the list.