Judicial elections in Utah happen in even-numbered years. It is one of six states that uses retention elections to determine whether judges should remain on the bench without using another type of election as an initial selection method.
Utah judges are first appointed by the governor and affirmed by the Utah Senate before having to run for retention after their term expires.
Fifty judges are up for retention statewide; 10 of them are up for retention in Wasatch County and 14 in Summit County. Most of them are juvenile or district court judges.
Only one Court of Appeals judge, Judge Ryan Tenney, and the Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court, Justice Matthew Durrant, are up for retention this year.
Mary-Margaret Pingree is the executive director of the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission. It’s an independent government commission responsible for evaluating state judges and providing this information to voters.
This agency is separate from the Judicial Conduct Commission, which handles complaints about judges’ conduct. Pingree said the commission is made up of 13 members appointed by the three branches of the government to ensure balance.
The commission, she said, scores each judge based on performance in multiple categories.
“There are four categories that we evaluate a judge on: legal ability, integrity and judicial temperament, administrative skill and procedural fairness,” Pingree said. “So, a judge can score poorly in one of those four areas. We gather information in a number of ways to decide what their score is. We're surveying attorneys, court staff, people who spend time in a judge's courtroom, and we're asking them to rate a judge in each of these areas.”
A team of courtroom observers is also sent in to watch each judge to see if the judge is treating people fairly and with respect.
Pingree can’t recall a time when a judge was not retained. However, she notes there are judges who don’t score well on their evaluations.
In those cases, the commission notifies the judges of their low scores before voters see the information so the judge can decide whether to run for retention.
It takes time to vote for each judge listed on the ballot, but Pingree hopes voters won’t pass up the opportunity.
“Some people have told me that they do vote all yes or vote all no, but we recommend actually investigating each judge,” she said. “Each judge is a little bit different, so it's important to find out information before you cast your vote.”
The judges’ scores can be found online when searching by county.
