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Voters appeared poised to give new terms to nearly all of the 135 judges who stood for retention this year across the state.

The citizen-led performance commissions that operate in each judicial district, plus the panel that reviews judges with statewide jurisdiction, all found the judges up for retention this year met performance standards. Consequently most judges enjoyed an overwhelming vote tally in favor of their retention, but one recently-appointed trial judge appeared on the verge of narrowly losing her job.

By a mere 560 votes out of more than 20,000 cast, La Plata County Court Judge Anne Kathryn Woods was the only judge on track to be voted out of office as of 10 p.m.

Woods was appointed to the court in October 2020 after serving as a public defender for five years in the Sixth Judicial District. The performance commission for the district found, by 6-3, that Woods met performance standards.

In its narrative to voters, the commission believed Woods had improved her job performance as a judge over time, but the public reportedly “did not see Judge Woods as fair.” The commission clarified the concern about Woods was an alleged appearance of bias in favor of criminal defendants.

If she were to lose her retention election, Woods would be the fifth judge within the past four retention cycles to be ousted. Although women comprise 41% of the judges statewide, they made up 60% of the non-retained judges.

In general, the performance commissions’ analysis does not provide a complete picture of judicial performance statewide. Judges may choose to retire preemptively rather than let an unfavorable performance evaluation be submitted to voters.

County court judges who were retained will now serve an additional term of four years. District court judges will receive a six-year term and Court of Appeals judges will have eight years until their next retention. There were no members of the Supreme Court on the ballot this year.

This was the first election cycle in which appointees of Gov. Jared Polis stood for retention, including five of the eight Court of Appeals judges on the ballot.