This officeholder information was last updated on September 29, 2017. Please contact us with any updates.

Court[edit]

Howard County courthouse Image Courtesy of TexasCourthouses.com

The Howard County Court is a trial court in Howard County, Texas, with concurrent jurisdiction over many cases with the district courts.^[1]

Judges[edit]

• Kathryn Wiseman

See also[edit]

• Howard County, Texas
• Texas County Courts

External links[edit]

• Texas Courts Online, "Directory of Trial Courts by County"

Elections[edit]

See also: Texas judicial elections

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

• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2024
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2023
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2022
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2021
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2020
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2019
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2018
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2017
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2016
• Texas judicial elections, 2014
• Texas judicial elections, 2012
• Texas judicial elections, 2010

Selection method[edit]

See also: Partisan election of judges

Judges of the county courts are elected in partisan elections by the county they serve and serve four-year terms, with vacancies filled by a vote of the county commissioners.^[2]

Qualifications
To serve on a county court, a judge must:^[2]

• be at least 25 years old;
• be a resident of his or her respective county for at least two years; and
• have practiced law or served as a judge for at least four years preceding the election.

Election rules[edit]

Primary election[edit]

Partisan primaries are held if even one candidate has filed for a position. To advance to the general election, a candidate must win a majority (over 50 percent) of the vote. If no candidate in a race wins the majority—as in cases where more than two candidates are competing for a seat—a runoff election is held between the top two candidates.^[3][4]

Though Texas officially has closed primaries (requiring that voters declare party affiliation in advance in order to participate), the state's primaries are functionally open: registered voters may vote in any single party's primary if they have not voted in the primary of another party. The elections are closed, however, in that voters may not participate in the proceedings (a runoff primary or a convention) of another party thereafter.^[3]

General election[edit]

The winning candidates from each major party's primary, as well as any additional minor party candidates, compete in a general election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. If a candidate was unopposed in the general election, his or her name will still appear on the general election ballot.^[3][5]

Footnotes[edit]