The Election Process for Wyoming Judges

While WY Citizens don’t initially select their judges, they can vote to keep (retain) or remove them. Unlike the executive and legislative branches of WY government, Wyoming Citizens do not vote to initially nominate, nor seat, judges to the judicial bench.  Instead, per our Wyoming State Constitution, the WY Judicial Nominating Commission selects and recommends three candidates to the current governor to fill a vacancy in the supreme, district and circuit courts.  The governor then appoints one candidate to fill that vacancy until the end of the term for that seat.  When their first term is coming to an end, and all other terms thereafter, judges appear on general election ballots where WY Citizens are asked to vote, “Yes” or “No”, on whether or not to retain them.

To keep his seat, a judge must receive more than 50% “Yes” votes from the total number of ballots cast.

When voting on a “Judge Standing for Retention”:

• a “Yes” vote is a citizen’s approval to retain the judge
• a “No” vote is a citizen’s assertion to remove the judge

If a voter leaves this portion of their ballot blank it will show up as an “Under Vote” when tabulated later by election officials.  Since a judge requires a majority of “Yes” votes to be retained, Under Votes ultimately count as a No vote.  (“Over Votes” are when a voter votes twice on the same question, thereby canceling-out that vote altogether.)

Circuit Court judges serve four year terms; District Court judges serve six year terms; Wyoming Supreme Court justices serve eight year terms.

For more on the retainment process read Article 5, Section 4 of our WY State Constitution.