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California local trial court judicial elections, 2016

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California held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. There was a primary on June 7, 2016. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was March 31, 2016. A total of 497 seats were up for election.

Contested races appeared on the primary ballot on June 7, 2016. Any candidate winning a majority of the vote in the primary automatically won the general election. If no candidate won a majority, the top two candidates advanced to the general election. Unopposed candidates did not appear on the ballot and were automatically reelected following the November 8 election.

Local judicial races in California in 2016 overwhelmingly were uncontested and overwhelmingly featured an incumbent candidate. Only 22 out of 497 seats held a race with more than one candidate and only 58 out of 497 candidates were challengers.

For information on 2016 state appellate court and supreme court elections in California, click here.

Elections

Contested general elections

Alameda County Superior Court

Office 1

☑ Scott Jackson
☐ Barbara Thomas

Kern County Superior Court

Office 34

Judge Woodward resigned from office in mid-October 2016 in order to apply for a position with the Office of Inspector General in Bakersfield. His name still appeared on the ballot, but his challenger Tiffany Organ-Bowles defeated him in the general election.[1]

☐ Cory Woodward (i)
☑ Tiffany Organ-Bowles

Los Angeles County Superior Court

Office 11

☑ Debra Archuleta
☐ Steven P. Schreiner

Office 42

☑ Efrain Matthew Aceves
☐ Alicia Molina

Office 84

☐ Javier Perez
☑ Susan Jung Townsend

Office 158

☐ David Berger
☑ Kim Nguyen

Marin County Superior Court

Office 2

☐ Michael Coffino
☑ Sheila Lichtblau

San Bernardino County Superior Court

Office 24

☐ Susan Slater
☑ Denise Trager Dvorak

San Francisco County Superior Court

Office 7

☐ Paul Henderson
☑ Victor Hwang

Contested primaries

Uncontested elections

Unopposed candidates are automatically elected without appearing on the ballot.

Alameda County Superior Court

Alpine County Superior Court

Butte County Superior Court

Colusa County Superior Court

El Dorado County Superior Court

Fresno County Superior Court

Glenn County Superior Court

Humboldt County Superior Court

Inyo County Superior Court

Kern County Superior Court

Los Angeles County Superior Court

Madera County Superior Court

Marin County Superior Court

Mendocino County Superior Court

Modoc County Superior Court

Mono County Superior Court

Monterey County Superior Court

Napa County Superior Court

Nevada County Superior Court

Placer County Superior Court

Riverside County Superior Court

Sacramento County Superior Court

San Diego County Superior Court

San Francisco County Superior Court

San Luis Obispo County Superior Court

San Mateo County Superior Court

Santa Barbara County Superior Court

Santa Clara County Superior Court

Santa Cruz County Superior Court

Shasta County Superior Court

Sierra County Superior Court

Solano County Superior Court

Sonoma County Superior Court

Stanislaus County Superior Court

Tehama County Superior Court

Tulare County Superior Court

Ventura County Superior Court

Yolo County Superior Court

Yuba County Superior Court

Analysis

Of the 497 seats up for election, only 22 held races that featured more than one candidate. Since uncontested races do not appear on the ballot in California and unopposed candidates are elected automatically, only 4.4 percent of judicial races occurring in 2016 made it to the ballot.

Of 541 candidates running for judicial seats in California, 475 were incumbents and only 57 were challengers. 97 percent of races featured an incumbent candidate.

Election rules

Primary election

Only candidates for the superior courts compete in primary elections.

  • If a superior court judge runs unopposed for re-election, his or her name does not appear on the ballot and he or she is automatically re-elected following the general election.[2][3]
  • If a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary, that candidate automatically wins the general election as well. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary, the top two compete in the November general election.[4]
  • Write-in candidates may file to run against an incumbent within 10 days after the filing deadline passes, if they are able to secure enough signatures (between 100 and 600, depending on the number of registered voters in the county). In that case, the incumbent would appear on the general election ballot along with an option to vote for a write-in candidate.[3]

General election

  • Superior court candidates that advanced from the primary election compete in the general election.
  • Superior court incumbents facing competition from write-in candidates appear on the ballot.[3][4]

Selection method

See also: Nonpartisan election

The 1,535 judges of the California Superior Courts compete in nonpartisan races in even-numbered years. If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the June primary election, he or she is declared the winner; if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two candidates is held during the November general election.[5][6][7][8]

If an incumbent judge is running unopposed in an election, his or her name does not appear on the ballot. The judge is automatically re-elected following the general election.[5]

The chief judge of any given superior court is selected by peer vote of the court's members. He or she serves in that capacity for one or two years, depending on the county.[5]

Qualifications
Candidates are required to have 10 years of experience as a law practitioner or as a judge of a court of record.[5]

Recent news

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See also

External links

Footnotes

v • e

2016 Elections for State and Local Courts
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