Voters in 23 Ohio counties elected municipal court judges this week.

Voters in 23 Ohio counties elected municipal court judges this week.

In the smallest judicial election year in the past six years, Ohio voters elected 12 new municipal court judges in this week’s general election, including three who were elected over newly appointed incumbents.

Only 23 counties had municipal court judgeships on the ballot, with 47 races statewide. Nineteen races, or 40%, were contested with two or more candidates running.

Nine municipal court seats decided Tuesday were open seats, including five for incumbent judges who were unable to run due to Ohio’s constitutional age limitations for judges.

According to unofficial election results, those who were successful in defeating incumbents were:

• Valerie Juergens Wilt, who replaces incumbent Judge Brian C. Driscoll on the Clark County Municipal Court
• Mike McAllister, who replaces incumbent Judge Michael King on the Franklin County Municipal Court
• Donte Johnson, who replaces incumbent Judge Bertha Garcia Helmick on the Hamilton County Municipal Court.

All three incumbents received gubernatorial appointments and took office earlier this year.

The other newly elected judges are:

• Daniel D. Carey, Clark County Municipal Court
• Andrea Nelson Moore, Cleveland Municipal Court
• Tess Neff, Lakewood Municipal Court
• Anne Walton Keller, Shaker Heights Municipal Court
• Robert T. Ullom, Fairfield County Municipal Court
• Bill Hedrick, Franklin County Municipal Court
• Mary Kay Fenlon, Franklin County Municipal Court
• Edmund H. Kalil, Eaton Municipal Court
• Martin Hubbell, Lebanon Municipal Court.

In 2022, Ohio voters in all counties will elect judges, including for chief justice and two associate justices of the Ohio Supreme Court. For the first time in 12 years, the chief justice’s seat will be open, as Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor will be unable to run for reelection due to the judicial age limit.

In addition to the Supreme Court seats, more than 160 other judicial seats will be up for election next year.

All counties will have elections for the state’s 12-district court of appeals and 57 counties will elect common pleas court judges. Another 13 county court seats in 12 counties also will be up for election.

The filing deadline is Feb. 2 for partisan candidates for next year’s elections.

Also, the Ohio General Assembly recently passed a judicial election twist in the way some judicial candidates will be listed on voters’ ballots. Beginning in 2022, for Supreme Court and appellate court candidates only, party labels will appear next to their names for both the primary and general elections.

Separately, elections for local court judge seats will continue with the state’s current judicial-candidate identification status. In 2022 common pleas court and county court candidates will have party affiliation listed during in the primary elections, but not in the general election.