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Cowlitz County District Court, Washington

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Ballotpedia provides comprehensive election coverage of the 100 largest cities in America by population as well as mayoral, city council, and district attorney election coverage in state capitals outside of the 100 largest cities. This court is outside of that coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates.


Court

Ballotpedia:Trial Courts

The Cowlitz County District Court is a district court in Cowlitz County, Washington.[1]

Judges

Former judges

See also

External links


Washington courts

Federal courts:

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington

State courts:

Washington Supreme Court • Washington Court of Appeals • Washington Superior Court • Washington District Courts • Washington Municipal Courts

State resources:

Courts in Washington • Washington judicial elections • Judicial selection in Washington

Elections

See also: Washington judicial elections

Washington is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in Washington, click here.

Selection method

See also: Nonpartisan election of judges

Judges of the district courts are chosen in nonpartisan elections. They serve four-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to continue serving.[2][3]

Qualifications
To serve on a district court, a judge must be:[4]

  • a resident and registered voter of his or her district;
  • one of the following: licensed to practice law in the state; a former district judge, municipal judge, police judge or justice of the peace; able to pass a qualifying exam (in districts of more than 5000 people); and
  • under the age of 75.*[3]

*No judge is eligible to run for office after attaining the age of 75. If a sitting judge turns 75 while serving, he or she may continue serving until the end of that calendar year.[5]

Election rules

Primary election

Primaries are held only if more than two candidates file for a position. These contests are nonpartisan in nature.[6] The two candidates who receive the greatest number of votes in the primary advance to the general election. Until 2013, a candidate who won over 50 percent of the vote in the primary was then unopposed in the general election. But the law was amended in 2013. Since that amendment, the top two finishers in a judicial primary must advance to compete with each other in the general election.[7][8][9]

General election

In counties with a population greater than 100,000, if only one superior court candidate files for election for a judgeship, that candidate is automatically elected and the county does not hold a general election for the seat.[10] According to the 2010 census, the following counties had populations greater than 100,000:[11]


Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Washington Courts, "Court Directory: Superior, Juvenile, District & Municipal Courts by County," accessed September 22, 2014
  2. ↑ Washington Courts, "A Citizen's Guide to Washington Courts, Eleventh Edition," 2008
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named limited
  4. ↑ Washington State Legislature, "Washington State Constitution," accessed September 24, 2014 (Scroll to Article IV)
  5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named const
  6. ↑ Washington State Legislature, "RCW 29A.52.220," accessed April 30, 2014
  7. ↑ Washington State Legislature, "RCW 29A.36.170," accessed April 30, 2014
  8. ↑ Washington Courts, "Judicial Election Information," July 13, 2012
  9. ↑ Washington Courts, "2013 Legislative Summary," accessed July 26, 2016
  10. ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Judicial Elections in Washington State," accessed April 30, 2014
  11. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, "Washington: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2013," accessed July 24, 2014
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