{"id":987,"date":"2026-09-13T17:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/cpt_politics\/how-circuit-and-county-judges-work-and-how-you-elect-them-thirteenth-judicial-circuit-hillsborough-county-how-circuit-and-county-judges-work-and-how-you-elect-them-thirteenth-judicial-circuit-hi\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T17:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:07:10","slug":"how-circuit-and-county-judges-work-and-how-you-elect-them-thirteenth-judicial-circuit-hillsborough-county-how-circuit-and-county-judges-work-and-how-you-elect-them-thirteenth-judicial-circuit-hi","status":"publish","type":"cpt_politics","link":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/politics\/how-circuit-and-county-judges-work-and-how-you-elect-them-thirteenth-judicial-circuit-hillsborough-county-how-circuit-and-county-judges-work-and-how-you-elect-them-thirteenth-judicial-circuit-hi\/","title":{"rendered":"How circuit and county judges work and how you elect them &#8211; Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Circuit judges in Hillsborough handle the serious cases: felonies, lawsuits over larger sums, divorce and child custody, probate and guardianship, juvenile cases, and appeals from county court. County judges handle the cases most residents actually touch &#8211; misdemeanors, traffic and DUI, evictions and landlord-tenant disputes, and small civil claims &#8211; and they set bail at first appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Circuit judges and county court judges serve six-year terms that begin on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January following the general election. Seats whose terms expire in January 2027 are on the ballot November 3, 2026. Hillsborough County has qualified candidates for both Circuit Judge and County Court Judge seats for 2026.<\/p>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p>These races are nonpartisan &#8211; no party label appears on the ballot and every registered voter may vote in them regardless of party. They are decided at the August 18, 2026 primary if one candidate wins an outright majority; if no one gets a majority, the top two advance to the November 3, 2026 general election. Term length and start date quoted from the Florida Division of Elections candidate FAQ. Midterm vacancies are filled by the governor from a Judicial Nominating Commission list rather than by election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Circuit judges in Hillsborough handle the serious cases: felonies, lawsuits over larger sums, divorce and child custody, probate and guardianship, juvenile cases, and appeals from county court. County judges handle the cases most residents actually touch &#8211; misdemeanors, traffic and DUI, evictions and landlord-tenant disputes, and small civil claims &#8211;[&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":988,"menu_order":1302,"template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"wds_primary_politics-category":0},"politics-category":[],"class_list":["post-987","cpt_politics","type-cpt_politics","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpt_politics\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cpt_politics"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cpt_politics"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"politics-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/tampa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/politics-category?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}