West Virginia local trial court judicial elections, 2018

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2018
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West Virginia held nonpartisan elections for local judicial offices on May 8, 2018. The filing deadline for candidates to run in this election was January 27, 2018. Since many local court judges were elected in West Virginia's first nonpartisan judicial elections in 2016, any judicial elections which occurred in 2018 were to fill unexpired terms resulting from vacancies.[1]

Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage of elections in America's 100 largest cities by population. This coverage extends to every office on the ballot for residents of these cities, including local trial court judges. Since this state did not have a city in the top 100, Ballotpedia did not cover local trial court judicial elections in this state in 2018. Click here to learn more about how the judges in this state are selected. Please consider donating to Ballotpedia to help us expand our coverage of these elections.

Election dates

  • January 27, 2018: Candidate filing deadline
  • May 8, 2018: General election

Election rules

See also: Nonpartisan election of judges

Circuit Courts

The judges of the West Virginia Circuit Court are chosen by the people in nonpartisan elections and must run for re-election when their terms expire. Each judge is elected to an eight-year term.[2]

Selection of the chief judge

The chief judge of each circuit court is also selected by peer vote, but term lengths vary by circuit.[2]

Qualifications

To serve on a West Virginia Circuit Court, a judge must be:

  • a citizen of West Virginia for at least five years;
  • a resident of his or her circuit;
  • at least 30 years old; and
  • practiced in law for at least five years.[2]

Family Courts

Judges of the West Virginia Family Courts are each elected to six-year and eight-year terms. Their initial term is six years and every subsequent term is eight years.[3] The elections for this court are nonpartisan contested elections. To serve on this court, a judge must be a state citizen, a circuit resident, a minimum of 30 years of age and have five years of law practice in the state.[4]

Magistrate Courts

Judges of the West Virginia Magistrate Courts are each elected to four-year terms.[5] The elections for this court are nonpartisan contested elections. To serve on this court, a judge must be a county resident, a minimum of 21 years of age and have a high school diploma or equivalent. Judges of these courts do not need to be lawyers, but they must complete a course in rudimentary principles of law and procedure.[4]

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

There are no pivot counties in West Virginia. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump (R) won West Virginia with 68.5 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton (D) received 26.4 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, West Virginia cast votes for the winning presidential candidate 76.7 percent of the time. In that same time frame, West Virginia supported Democratic and Republican candidates for president equally. West Virginia favored Republicans in every presidential election between 2000 and 2016.

Presidential results by legislative district

The following table details results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections by state House districts in West Virginia. Click [show] to expand the table. The "Obama," "Romney," "Clinton," and "Trump" columns describe the percent of the vote each presidential candidate received in the district. The "2012 Margin" and "2016 Margin" columns describe the margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in those years. Data on the results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections broken down by state legislative districts was compiled by Daily Kos.[6][7]

In 2012, Barack Obama (D) won four out of 67 state House districts in West Virginia with an average margin of victory of 13.9 points. In 2016, Hillary Clinton (D) won one out of 67 state House districts in West Virginia with an average margin of victory of 34.4 points.
In 2012, Mitt Romney (R) won 63 out of 67 state House districts in West Virginia with an average margin of victory of 31.9 points. In 2016, Donald Trump (R) won 66 out of 67 state House districts in West Virginia with an average margin of victory of 46.8 points.

See also

Local courts West Virginia Other local coverage
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External links

Footnotes