Jury summons - personal info WTH?!!

Okay, so the eldest Cairykitten has attained the age of majority. She got a jury summons today (from being registered to vote, I figure). One can answer the summons online nowadays, which she did. But she showed me the form. Besides date of birth, residence, etc. they asked for political party affiliation and household income - ! (Answer was required.) I suppose it's possible the attorneys might ask for such information at the voir dire for a trial, but it seems very invasive to me to ask that of all prospective jurors.

The last time I got called was about five years ago, and I don't remember being asked things like that.

While I'm griping about jury duty, let me add that my MIL, who is 77, and my FIL, who lived to 84, both lived in this county all their lives and NEVER got called for jury duty, despite voting, registering cars, owning real estate, and jobs with major employers.

I don't recall ever having those kind of questions either. That's odd.


Regarding being selected; a similar situation has happened with my parents. My Father has been called for jury duty more times than he can count. My mother...never. Both registered to vote for 50+ years. It supposed to be random but occurrences like that make people think there is something sinister afoot.

and I agree - the info is invasive - it would be interesting if an entire jury 'just happened' to be made up of a particular party preference or income level. Didn't we have a County Attorney (here in Black Hawk) that got in trouble for instructing his assistants to strike African Americans from juries if the Defendant was African American?

but then I have only been called once.
Mrs. Lib on the other hand has been called about six times. And each time we have to go to the county courthouse and fill out an exception because she can't drive and would have no way to get there. She hasn't been called for about 5 years so maybe they have finally gotten it through their thick heads that she is incapable of serving. The first time she was called, I called and they were really nasty. We ended up having to get a note from her doctor and going to the courthouse and presenting the note and her. I had to take a day off to do so. To have failed to do this would have resulted in her arrest .......

My dad and my brother have each received jury summons, but I, my mom, and sister never have. In both cases neither my dad or brother ever got as far as being selected, my brother never ever had to go to the courthouse at all.

:hi:

And especially to the Iowa Forum!

What part of Iowa are you from?

I live up by the State of Dubuque.

and can't ever remember having to answer what political party I belonged to? Though I think there was something about family income.

but my husband was summoned last week, and I got a summons for jury duty today. It'll be interesting to see which one(s) of us end up serving. But the selection just isn't looking all that random to me.

I've also had jury duty, and I can't remember what they asked for basic info. What I was more irritated by was that I couldn't use the excuse of going to college to get out of it. So, I had to come back from UI, and sit through jury selection. Granted, I got booted off the jury (YAY!!) because my beliefs clashed with the prosecution and defense attorney, but I still hated the process. I know it is one of the necessary pains of being a citizen, but I still did not enjoy it at all.