Colorado’s judges aren’t elected; they’re appointed by the governor. But they can be voted out — which is what happened in November in southwest Colorado’s La Plata County.

Voters in and around Durango, the county seat, had enough of La Plata County Court Judge Anne Woods’ leniency toward lawbreakers. By a slim margin, they turned her out of office only two years after she had been appointed.

They availed themselves of a power voters have statewide — but too often overlook.

Colorado judges periodically must face “retention” elections. But they are overshadowed by higher-profile races and issues on the ballot.

Especially in the state’s more populous jurisdictions — where many judges serve in each judicial district, and their names and rulings are unfamiliar to the public — the retention elections give voters little to go on. The judges don’t face opponents, either; voters are asked only whether to keep them on the bench.

Because judges don’t run for office in the first place and don’t publicly affiliate with a political party, they have no campaign platforms or websites that tell the public where they stand on issues pertinent to their judicial service. They are simply appointed by the governor from lists of nominees prepared by judicial nominating commissions.

On rare occasion, a judge’s record stirs enough controversy to catch the public’s attention and draw fire from wide-ranging stakeholders in a community. That’s apparently what happened in La Plata County.

As profiled by our news affiliate Colorado Politics, Woods — a 2015 law school grad who had served only five years as a public defender — had made no secret of her embrace of “restorative justice” and other notions of the soft-on-crime, justice-reform movement. She told Colorado Politics she was up front about it with the governor’s office.

And it showed in court. County court judges such as Woods only hear nonfelony cases — traffic and other misdemeanor offenses — and some civil cases. They also set bail for criminal suspects. Yet, it gave her ample opportunity to reveal her soft touch.

There was the church leader who had pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor offenses after sexually abusing young adults whom he had groomed as children. Woods gave him probation instead of 60 days in jail, declaring, “There’s no amount of jail that’s going to help anyone here.”

In a DUI case, Woods granted bond to a man who drove drunk again, killing his passenger. She also granted bond to a mentally ill woman arrested for setting fire to a barn — only to have her lead police on a high-speed chase after her release.

Woods’ basic competence on the bench — her demeanor and knowledge of the law and judicial procedure — also were challenged by critics. A state commission that reviews performance and assesses competence of judges gave her a mixed but mostly positive rating.

What understandably troubled voters was Woods’ failure in their eyes to hold criminals accountable. So, they took action.

The saga raises key questions for voters statewide: How many like-minded judges are serving in their communities — amid rising crime across Colorado? How many judges might be suitable to the governor but out of step with the values and needs of their jurisdictions?

It’s a challenge to find out in the absence of an easily accessible database that could track rulings and empower citizens to evaluate judges. Ousting a judge with a misplaced sense of justice isn’t easy.

Yet, as the citizens of La Plata County demonstrated, it can be done.