Judges inUtah stand inretention elections that occur during the November general election. Judicial elections only take place ineven-numbered years in the state.

Utah is one of eight states that useretention elections to determine whether judges should remain on the bench without using another type of election as an initial selection method. To read more about how states use judicial elections to select judges across the country,click here.

Elections

• Utah Supreme Court elections, 2026
• Utah intermediate appellate court elections, 2026
• Utah Supreme Court elections, 2024
• Utah intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
• Utah Supreme Court elections, 2022
• Utah Supreme Court elections, 2020
• Utah intermediate appellate court elections, 2020
• Utah Supreme Court elections, 2018
• Utah intermediate appellate court elections, 2018
• Utah local trial court judicial elections, 2018
• Utah judicial elections, 2016
• Utah judicial elections, 2014
• Utah judicial elections, 2012
• Utah judicial elections, 2010

Election rules

Retention election

In retention elections, judges do not compete against another candidate, but voters are given a "yes" or "no" choice whether to keep the justice in office for another term. If the candidate receives more yes votes than no votes, he or she is successfully retained. If not, the candidate is not retained, and there will be a vacancy in that court effective the first Monday in January following the general election.^[1]

Filing deadline

Candidates must file their declarations of candidacy between the second Friday and the third Thursday in March of the election year.^[2]

Judicial performance evaluation

In 2012, Utah had its first statewide judicial performance evaluation for judges standing for retention. These were conducted by theUtah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission.

History

From the state's inception in 1896 until 1951, judges participated inpartisan elections. In 1951, legislation changed the process for the judiciary tononpartisan elections. Legislature created another change in 1967, so that if a candidate was unopposed the voters would answer whether the candidate should be retained or not, although opposed candidates still ran in nonpartisan elections. It was not until 1985 that Utah's judicial elections became unopposed retention elections.^[3]

See also

Utah	Judicial Selection	More Courts
Courts in UtahUtah Court of AppealsUtah Supreme Court	Elections:2026 •2025 •2024 •2023 •2022 •2021 •2020 •2019 •2018 •2017Gubernatorial appointmentsJudicial selection in Utah	Federal courtsState courtsLocal courts

External links

• Utah State Legislature, "Article VIII, Section 9.(Judicial retention elections)," accessed April 25, 2014
• Elections.utah.gov, accessed April 25, 2014
• American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Utah," accessed April 25, 2014

Footnotes

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