What Northern Arizona Voters Decide About Judges on November 3

Bridge News civic guide for Prescott and Northern Arizona. Election Day is November 3, 2026. This is not a Bridge endorsement of any judge.

A widely shared voter guide this week grades dozens of Maricopa County and Pima County superior court judges and tells readers to vote yes or no on retention. That list is useful if you vote in those counties. It is not the ballot in Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Dewey-Humboldt, or the rest of Yavapai County.

Rachel Alexander’s October 4 article at Intellectual Conservative makes one point that does apply statewide: if a merit-selected judge is not retained, the seat does not go to a challenger. It becomes a vacancy. In counties that use merit selection, the governor fills that vacancy from a nominating-commission list. Smaller counties, including Yavapai, do not appoint superior court judges that way. Their trial judges run for the seat.

Three different decisions, depending on where you live

Arizona uses two systems.

• Merit selection and retention. Used for the Arizona Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and superior courts in counties of 250,000 or more (Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal), plus any smaller county that has opted in. Voters see a yes-or-no question: should this judge stay?
• Contested election. Used for superior court judges in smaller counties, including Yavapai. Candidates run in a partisan primary, then appear on the general ballot without a party label.

A Supreme Court justice is on every Arizona ballot. Court of Appeals judges appear only in the counties their division serves. Superior court judges appear only in their own county.

What a Yavapai County voter actually sees

Arizona Supreme Court, retention. Vice Chief Justice John R. Lopez IV. A yes vote keeps him. A no vote opens the seat for gubernatorial appointment from a commission list.

Court of Appeals, Division 1, retention. Division 1 hears appeals from Maricopa, Yuma, La Paz, Mohave, Yavapai, Navajo, and Apache counties. These eight judges are on the Yavapai ballot:

• Michael S. Catlett
• Anni Hill Foster
• Randall M. Howe
• Andrew M. Jacobs
• Daniel J. Kiley
• James B. Morse Jr.
• Jennifer M. Perkins
• David Weinzweig

The October 4 Intellectual Conservative guide does not grade these appellate judges or Justice Lopez. Its grades cover Maricopa and Pima superior courts only. Those lists are in the companion posts for readers who vote in Phoenix or Tucson, or who want the source notes before they advise family there.

Yavapai County Superior Court, contested seats. These are elections, not retention. Ballotpedia lists these candidates on the November 3 general ballot:

• Division 1: Michael P. McGill
• Division 2: John D. Napper, presiding judge
• Division 3: Josh Butner
• Division 5: Henry Whitmer
• Division 6: Anna Young

Bios and court contacts from the primary are already on Bridge: Yavapai County Superior Court Judges – 2026 Primary.

What the official review said

On September 2, 2026, the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review released ratings for one Supreme Court justice and 81 Court of Appeals and superior court judges on the retention ballot. A majority of the commission found that each of them met the standards used for retention: integrity, legal ability, administrative performance, judicial temperament, and communication skills. Reports are in the Secretary of State publicity pamphlet and at azjudges.info.

That finding is not the same thing as a recommendation from a party committee, a PAC, or a commentator. Alexander’s article argues the commission review is too thin to decide a vote, and she points readers to other lists. Those are arguments, not the official record. Read both.

How to read a retention question

• Yes means the judge finishes the term and stays on the bench. After the first retention, Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges come back every six years. Superior court judges in merit counties come back every four.
• No means the judge is not retained. In a merit county, the governor appoints a replacement from the nominating commission’s list. The article’s political point is that the winner of the governor’s race is the person who would make those appointments. The legal point is narrower: a no vote creates a vacancy. It does not elect a named opponent.
• Case assignment is not a lottery. The presiding judge assigns cases. Alexander identifies Maricopa’s presiding judge as Joseph Welty, who is on the Maricopa retention ballot. Yavapai’s presiding judge is John D. Napper.

Sources the original guide used

If you want to go past one graded list, these are the links Alexander published with her article:

• LD 4 GOP voter guide: azld4gop.org/VOTERGUIDE
• Freedom PAC / AZ Ballot: azballot.org
• AZ Judge Watch, which she says to read and vote the other way: azjudgewatch.com/voter-guide
• Robing Room comments, which she discounts as often coming from unhappy litigants: therobingroom.com/arizona
• Commission reports: Arizona Judicial Performance Review (her link points at the 2024 reports; the 2026 ratings are at azjudges.info)
• An X account she cites on Maricopa judges: @MaricopaJudges

Companion guides

• Maricopa County Superior Court grades, as published by Intellectual Conservative
• Pima County Superior Court grades, as published by Intellectual Conservative

Check your sample ballot. County, not the headline on a statewide share, decides which judges you can vote on.