The 2018 Illinois judicial elections consisted of both partisan and retention elections, including those for one seat on the Supreme Court of Illinois and five seats in the Illinois Appellate Court.[1][2] Primary elections were held on March 20, 2018, and general elections were held on November 6, 2018.[1][2] These elections were part of the 2018 Illinois elections.

2018 Illinois judicial elections
← 2016 November 6, 2018 2020 →

Supreme Court of Illinois

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Justices of the Supreme Court of Illinois are elected by district. One seat held a retention election.

The court has seven seats total separated into five districts. The first district, representing Cook County, contains three seats, making it a multi-member district, while other four districts are single-member districts.[3] Justices hold ten year terms.[3]

Retention elections

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To be retained, judges were required to have 60% of their vote be "yes".

District Incumbent Vote Cite
Party Name In office since Previous years elected/retained Yes
(Retain)
No
(Remove)
1st Democratic Anne M. Burke July 6, 2006 2008 (elected) 1,106,59
(81.1%)
258,253 (18.9%) [1][4][5]

Illinois Appellate Court

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Illinois Appellate Court justices hold ten-year terms.[3]

4th district (Appleton vacancy)

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Incumbent Peter C. Cavanagh, who was appointed in May 2017 to fill the vacancy left when Tom Appleton resigned his seat, won reelection.[6][7][8] This was a special election for two years, as Appeton's term would have ended in 2020.[9]

Democratic primary

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No Democratic primary was held, as no candidates filed to run.

Republican primary

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Due to the time the vacancy was created being so close to the May 6 filing date for candidates to make the ballot,[2][10] Cavanaugh was not on the ballot, and instead ran as a write-in candidate.[10]

Illinois Appellate Court 4th district (Appleton vacancy) Republican primary[11]
Party Candidate Votes %
Write-in Pete Cavanaugh (incumbent) 9,910 99.78
Write-in Timothy Forman 22 0.22
Total votes 9,932 100

General election

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Illinois Appellate Court 4th district (Appleton vacancy) election[12]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Pete Cavanaugh (incumbent) 377,400 100
Total votes 377,400 100

4th district (Pope vacancy)

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Incumbent Republican Thomas M. Harris, Jr., who was appointed in July 2017 to fill the vacancy left when Carole Pope resigned her seat, won reelection, running unopposed in both Republican primary and general election.[13][14] This was a special election for four years, as Pope's term would have ended in 2022.[15]

Democratic primary

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No Democratic primary was held, as no candidates filed to run.

Republican primary

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Illinois Appellate Court 4th district (Pope vacancy) Republican primary[11]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Thomas M. Harris, Jr. (incumbent) 101,530 100
Total votes 101,530 100

General election

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Illinois Appellate Court 4th district (Pope vacancy) election[12]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Thomas M. Harris, Jr. (incumbent) 377,404 100
Total votes 377,404 100

5th district

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Republican David K. Overstreet was elected to fill the vacancy that was created after Richard P. Goldenhersh retired in 2017.[12][16] This was a regular election, as Goldenhersh's term would have expired in 2018.[17]

Democratic primary

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Illinois Appellate Court 5th district Democratic primary[11]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Kevin T. Hoerner 69,967 100
Total votes 69,967 100

Republican primary

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Illinois Appellate Court 5th district Republican primary[11]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican David K. Overstreet 84,744 100
Total votes 84,744 100

General election

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Illinois Appellate Court 5th district election[12]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican David K. Overstreet 281,846 58.77
Democratic Kevin T. Hoerner 197,723 41.23
Total votes 479,569 100

Retention elections

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To be retained, judges were required to have 60% of their vote be "yes".

District Incumbent Vote Cite
Party Name In office since Previous years elected/retained Yes
(Retain)
No
(Remove)
1st Democratic Margaret Stanton McBride December 7, 1998 1998 (elected), 2008 (retained) 1,067,004
(81.1%)
248,831
(18.9%)
[18]
2nd Republican Robert McLaren December 5, 1988 1988 (elected), 1998, 2008 (retained) 782,693 (79.3%) 203,831 (20.7%) [19][20]

Lower courts

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Lower courts also saw judicial elections.[11][12][21] This included 52 partisan elections to fill vacancies on circuit courts and 34 partisan elections to fill vacancies on subcircuit courts.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Illinois Supreme Court elections, 2018". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Illinois intermediate appellate court elections, 2018". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Illinois Constitution - Article VI". www.ilga.gov. Illinois General Assembly. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  4. ^ "Anne M. Burke". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  5. ^ "Justice Anne M. Burke to Be Sworn in to Illinois Supreme Court" (PDF) (Press release). Illinois Supreme Court. July 5, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 14, 2012.
  6. ^ "Peter C. Cavanagh". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  7. ^ Schoenburg, Bernard. "Schoenburg: Judge Cavanagh interested in appellate court". The State Journal-Register. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  8. ^ "M.R. 1403" (PDF). Supreme Court of Illinois. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  9. ^ "Thomas Appleton". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Schoenburg, Bernard (March 21, 2018). "Pete Cavanagh easily makes it to fall appellate court ballot". The State Journal-Register. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Election Results 2018 GENERAL PRIMARY". www.elections.il.gov. Illinois State Board of Elections. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Election Results 2018 GENERAL ELECTION". www.elections.il.gov. Illinois State Board of Elections. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  13. ^ "Thomas M. Harris Jr". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  14. ^ Schoenburg, Bernard. "Pope retiring, Harris appointed and running for appellate court". The State Journal-Register. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  15. ^ "Carol Pope". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  16. ^ Rieck, Dana (October 27, 2017). "Former Jefferson County judge to seek election to appellate court". Belleville News-Democrat. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  17. ^ "Richard Goldenhersh". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  18. ^ "Margaret Stanton McBride". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  19. ^ "Robert McLaren". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  20. ^ "FOR STATE SUPREME, APPELLATE COURTS". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. November 1, 1988. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  21. ^ "Illinois local trial court judicial elections, 2018". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.