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Per-judge retention calls inside
The ballot
Utah judges are appointed, not elected: a nominating commission vets applicants, the governor chooses, and the Senate confirms. Voters then decide, judge by judge, in an uncontested nonpartisan retention election — a Supreme Court justice first faces voters at the first general election more than three years after appointment, then every ten years. A majority of YES votes retains. A NO majority opens the seat when the term ends, and the appointment process runs again. The election is November 3, 2026; ballots are already in mailboxes.
One justice is on the statewide ballot: Jill Pohlman. (Early coverage listed Justice Diana Hagen as also standing; she resigned in May 2026 and is not on the ballot — the correction matters, because an organized campaign named her too.)
Utah publishes official evaluations through the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (JPEC), which scores each judge on legal ability, integrity, administration and fairness from surveys, courtroom observation and disciplinary records. JPEC's 2026 verdicts, the scores behind them, and the one real retention fight on this ballot are all below. Statewide context from the Salt Lake Tribune's October 12, 2026 report: 57 judges appear on Utah ballots this year, and JPEC recommended retaining all of them except one Weber County justice-court judge — a commission that does fail judges when the record warrants it.
Justice Jill Pohlman
- Appointed by: Governor Spencer Cox, 2022 (took office August 17, 2022; Senate confirmed 25–0). On the Supreme Court four years; a judge since 2016, when Governor Gary Herbert appointed her to the Court of Appeals, where she served six years. She currently leads the Supreme Court as its interim chief justice while the court expands from five seats to seven under a 2026 law.
- Official evaluation: JPEC scored her 19.3 of 20, with 96% of survey respondents recommending retention, and voted 12–0 that she meets or exceeds standards — scores the Network of Utah Moderates' voter guide found "consistent with or above those of her appellate-court peers across every category."
- The organized campaign against her, printed in full: Pohlman is the only Utah appellate judge facing an organized removal push. It traces to League of Women Voters v. Utah Legislature (2024), in which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that when voters use an initiative to reform government, the Legislature cannot freely rewrite the result — changes impairing the reform must pass strict scrutiny. Pohlman joined the opinion (Justice Paige Petersen wrote it); the ruling sent the Proposition 4 redistricting fight back to the trial court, where the Legislature's congressional map was later thrown out. Legislative leaders called the ruling "one of the worst outcomes we have ever seen from the Utah Supreme Court." At the Republican state convention on April 25, 2026, party chair Rob Axson urged a NO vote on Pohlman and Hagen: "Vote no. These two people who ignore the Constitution have zero business being in the robe." Governor Cox — who appointed her — has said that "if people don't like decisions that are coming out of our Supreme Court, the appropriate way to deal with that is to vote against those judges in a retention election."
- The defense, also documented: The Utah State Bar answered on April 28, 2026, urging voters to use the performance evaluations instead: "Disagreement with a specific ruling should not be the basis for removal… A fair court system depends on judges who apply the law consistently for all, without being swayed by public or political pressure." Independent voter guides (Network of Utah Moderates; Elevate Utah) urge retention on the evaluation record.
- Our evaluation of the campaign: The case against Pohlman is one ruling — a unanimous ruling, authored by another justice, applying the Utah Constitution's initiative protections to a redistricting statute. No source in this research documents misconduct, an ethics finding, or an evaluation failure; the state's own evaluators scored her near the top of the scale, unanimously. A voter is entitled to weigh the redistricting decision itself — it is printed above, in full, with its critics' words. Under this page's standard, one ruling that elected officials dislike is a jurisprudence dispute, not proven cause to remove a judge whose performance record is 19.3 of 20. Note, too: no Utah Supreme Court justice has lost a retention vote in 17 elections going back to 1990.
- Dirt beyond the campaign: None documented. JPEC and the Utah Valley Insider's research both record no public disciplinary record.
OUR CALL
Our rule: Retain is the verdict for a judge with a serviceable documented record; removal requires proven cause — documented misconduct, proven activist judging that breaks faith with the law, or an evaluation failure. Pohlman's file is a unanimous 12–0 evaluation pass at 19.3 of 20, a 25–0 Senate confirmation, interim leadership of the court — and one unanimous ruling that cost her the support of the legislative leadership she ruled against. That is not proven cause; it is the retention system being aimed at a judge for doing the job independently, and the Bar said so at the time.
Retain: Jill Pohlman. Do not retain: none.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website. Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. --- Sources - Utah Valley Insider, October 21, 2026 — "The Reign of the Judges" (JPEC score 19.3/20, 96%, 12–0; appointment and confirmation record; redistricting ruling and convention campaign; Bar response) — https://utahvalleyinsider.com/p/the-reign-of-the-judges-the-retention-votes-on-your-ballot - Network of Utah Moderates, 2026 — voter guide urging retention of Pohlman on the JPEC record — https://networkofutahmoderates.com/p/2026-voter-guide-utah-judges - Elevate Utah, October 2026 — JPEC recommends retaining every evaluated judge except one justice-court judge; Bar urged reliance on evaluations — https://www.elevateutah.news/p/is-that-a-ballot-in-your-mailbox-0bb - Salt Lake Tribune, October 12, 2026 — 57 judges on Utah ballots; JPEC recommended against only Judge Trent Nelson — via Weber County Hive's sourced summary — https://weber-county-hive.github.io/Transparency/utah-judicial-oversight.html - Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission — judges.utah.gov (per-judge evaluations) — https://judges.utah.gov - 2026 United States judicial elections (compilation citing Ballotpedia) — roster verification; Hagen resignation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_judicial_elections
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.