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KNOX COUNTY GENERAL ELECTION: AUGUST 4, 2022
Early Voting July 15-30
Why Vote for Judges?
Whether a traffic citation, domestic relations matter, automobile accident, property damage claim, a dispute among business owners, contract interpretation or enforcement, or criminal charges, a large percentage of the public will at some point encounter the judicial system. Tennessee elects its state trial court judges by popular vote. Candidates seeking office must run first in the primary election on May 3, and then the top vote-getters from each political party will run in the general election on August 4.
The Judicial Committee of the Knoxville Bar Association has developed this section of the KBA website to provide educational resources so voters will know what to look for in a judicial candidate to make an informed decision at the ballot box. But the primary focus of the site is the biographical profiles of the individual candidates so voters in Knox County can obtain non-partisan information about candidates running for judge. When reviewing the candidate profiles, carefully consider if the judicial candidate has the breadth of experience relevant to the position he or she is seeking.
MARCH 11: RESULTS OF THE CANDIDATE SURVEY
The results are in!
Recently members of the Knoxville Bar Association were asked to carefully assess whether the candidates have demonstrated the knowledge, skill, experience, training, education, professional ethics, and temperament to fulfill the duties of the offices to which they aspire. The Survey asked members to evaluate each candidate’s overall suitability for the offices they were seeking according to the following options: Strongly Recommend, Recommend, Do Not Recommend, Strongly Do Not Recommend and, Do Not Know Candidate. If an attorney did not know the candidates’ qualifications or had no opinion, he or she was instructed to mark “do not know candidate.”
Electing judges who most closely meet the criteria for the highest qualified candidates is of utmost importance because you never know when a judge you vote for today will make a decision that will affect your business, or even more importantly, the decision may impact the lives of your family and friends. It is our responsibility to vote for judges we can trust to make impartial decisions based on fair consideration of the facts and law. That is why it is so important to vote for qualified people to be judges.
JUNE 27: RESULTS OF THE APPELLATE COURT RETENTION ELECTION CANDIDATE SURVEY
The results are in!
A poll of Knoxville Bar Association members regarding the retention election of the state Supreme Court justice and six appellate court judges indicates support for all to be retained. The confidential survey seeks to find whether attorneys who know the most about these jurists believe they should continue in their jobs. The retention election is on the ballot in the August 4 general election.
“The Knoxville Bar offers the poll to voters to help them assess jurists on the ballot,” said Knoxville Bar Association President Jason Long. “While voters may be familiar with the chancellors and circuit court judges and judicial candidates in our community, the work of the appeals judges is generally not as well known. So we ask Knoxville Bar members who know them best to give their opinion.”
Tennessee law requires Tennessee Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges to be placed on the ballot every eight years for voters to determine whether they should remain on their courts. These are called “retention” elections. A “Yes” vote means a voter wants the judge or justice to remain on the court for another eight-year term. A “No” vote means a voter wants the judge or justice to be removed from the court. The majority of voters decide.
The candidate survey was emailed on June 13 to each KBA member, asking whether the Supreme Court justices and the Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals jurists should be retained. The survey was voluntary and does not represent a scientific sampling of Bar members. The survey deadline was 5 pm on June 27.
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Learn about Knox County courts and how the judges are selected. | Vote for judges you can trust to make impartial decisions based on fair consideration of the facts and law. |
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