Judicial Retention: The Ballot Section Everyone Skips

A Utah judicial retention election is the simplest vote you'll cast and the one most people leave blank. You aren't picking between candidates. You're answering a single question about each judge on your ballot—"Shall Judge [Name] be retained in office?"—and you mark Yes or No. That's it. The reason to pay attention is that this is the only moment, once every six or ten years, when the public gets a direct say over who sits on the bench.

So why does it get skipped? Because the names are unfamiliar, there's no party label to lean on, and nobody runs ads about a district court judge. The ballot hands you a decision with none of the usual cues. The good news: Utah has built one of the most useful judicial-evaluation systems in the country, and once you know where to look, a thoughtful vote takes about five minutes.

How a Utah Judicial Retention Election Works

Utah judges don't campaign against opponents. They reach the bench through merit selection—a nominating commission screens applicants and forwards names to the governor, who appoints one, and the Utah State Senate must confirm the appointment by majority vote. No part of that process involves you. The retention election is where the public enters.

At the end of each term, a judge's name goes on the general-election ballot with that yes-or-no question. The rule is blunt: according to the state's official elections site, "if a judge receives more 'No' votes than 'Yes' votes, they are removed from the bench at the end of their term." There's no runoff and no second chance that cycle—a simple majority decides it.

How often a judge appears depends on the court. Under Utah Code 20A-12-201, Supreme Court justices stand for retention every ten years; Court of Appeals, district, juvenile, and justice court judges stand every six. Because the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals serve the whole state, those names show up on every Utahn's ballot. District, juvenile, and justice court judges vary by where you live.

This is the only moment, once every six or ten years, when the public gets a direct say over who sits on the bench.

What JPEC Is—and Why It's Your Best Tool

The reason a Utah voter can make an informed retention decision is a body called the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, or JPEC. It's an independent, 13-member state commission, and its design is deliberately balanced: the governor, the Legislature, and the Utah Supreme Court each appoint four members, with the executive director of the state's criminal-justice commission serving as the thirteenth. No single branch controls it.

JPEC's job is to evaluate every judge on the ballot and publish a recommendation—retain or do not retain—before you vote. It builds that recommendation from hard inputs, not vibes. Beginning with the 2012 retention election, JPEC surveys attorneys, court staff, and jurors and runs a courtroom-observation program, scoring judges on legal ability, procedural fairness, integrity and temperament, and administrative performance.

Here's the part conservatives should appreciate most. JPEC is explicit that it reviews the process of judging, not the outcome of cases. It does not grade a judge on whether you'd have liked a particular ruling. That's the appellate courts' job. JPEC asks whether the judge is prepared, fair, prompt, and even-handed—the qualities that make a courtroom legitimate regardless of who wins. It's an accountability mechanism that respects judicial independence instead of trying to turn judges into politicians.

Where to Find the Information Before You Vote

Everything you need is free and official. Two stops:

judges.utah.gov — JPEC's full reports on every judge standing for retention, including the survey scores and the commission's recommendation. A condensed version also appears in the Voter Information Pamphlet posted on the state elections site.
vote.utah.gov — look up your personalized sample ballot so you know exactly which district, juvenile, and justice court judges appear in your area, then match those names against the JPEC reports.

One honest caveat worth knowing: a "do not retain" recommendation is rare. In most cycles, the large majority of judges earn a recommendation to retain. That doesn't make the vote a rubber stamp—it means the merit-selection and evaluation system is filtering out weak candidates before they ever reach your ballot. When JPEC does flag a judge, that's a signal worth taking seriously, and it's exactly the kind of information that would otherwise be invisible.

How to Actually Vote the Judges Section

A practical, five-minute routine:

Pull your sample ballot at vote.utah.gov so you have the exact list of judges for your address.
Read the JPEC recommendation for each name at judges.utah.gov. Start with the headline retain / do-not-retain, then skim the scores if a number looks off.
Make a call on each. A clean evaluation is a reasonable basis for Yes. A flagged evaluation is a reasonable basis for No. Leaving it blank is the one option that forfeits your voice entirely.
Bring your notes. Jot the names down or vote with your phone open to the reports. There's no penalty for having the information in front of you.

If you genuinely can't evaluate a particular judge and no red flag exists, a Yes vote defers to a process built specifically to catch problems. But skipping the section because it feels unfamiliar is leaving real authority on the table.

Why This Matters to Pragmatic Conservatives

Conservatives talk a great deal about the courts—and rightly so. The bench is where constitutional principles either hold or erode. Utah's model is something to be proud of: it keeps judges out of the fundraising-and-campaigning business that corrodes trust in so many states, while still giving citizens a real, recurring check through retention. It's accountability without the circus, which is about as pragmatic as governance gets.

Filling in the judges section is a small act of the same civic seriousness that shows up in how we approach the whole 2026 ballot. It's of a piece with understanding every question in front of you rather than voting the top of the ticket and quitting. And it reflects a conviction we return to often: that the machinery of Utah government works best when citizens actually understand it and show up for the parts that don't make headlines.

The judges on your ballot will shape how justice is administered in Utah for the next six to ten years. That's worth five minutes. If you believe, as we do, that engaged citizens make better government, join the Republican Roundtable PAC and help us build a Utah where no part of the ballot gets skipped for lack of good information.

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Photo by Miles Smith on Unsplash