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Can someone point us "newer-Americans" to some basic info on how the judicial elections work here in Texas?

I note on my county's sample ballot a long list of various Supreme Court Justice elections as well as District court Judge elections. It is not clear to me which elections (some? all?) I am eligible to vote in. Also I note on the ballot the use of the phrase "Place #", but its not obvious how that maps to a district.

I've looked at these sites, but did not find the info I am looking for:
https://ballotpedia.org/Texas_intermedi ... ions,_2020
https://texasjudges.org/judicial-comparisons/

any help would be appreciated.

If it appears on your ballot when you go to vote, you are eligible to vote in that election. The actual ballots are customized to just match where you live. On the county sample ballot, it probably includes all of the races anywhere in the county.

For the Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, the races are statewide. The Circuit Courts of Appeals are multi-county and I think are all full county. The District Court elections are generally full county, though there are a few that are multi-county. I am not aware of any district courts that only cover a part of a county, but I won't swear it doesn't happen.

The place number refers to courts and offices that have multiple people for the same office. So, if you are eligible to vote for the the original office, you can vote for each place. So, for example, in the Supreme Court, there are 8 judges that all hold the same office (I think the chief justice gets designated differently). To differentiate the individual races, they give them place numbers.

The only ones you normally have to be aware of where you live while looking at the sample ballot are the county and local offices. You can only vote for the one county commissioner, JP, and Constable that represent the precinct you live in. Some of the larger counties will have multiple justices in each precinct and you can see place 1 and place 2 there also. You also have to make sure of the state house, state senate, and US house district as many of them do split counties.

Your local elections office can clarify which precinct you live in and which races apply to you. Some of them can be looked up at the state "Who Represents Me?" website: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

Thanks so much Steve. All the other elections were clear, it was the Judicial ones that were confusing - its clear now :-)

You should be able to download a sample ballot for your precinct from your county election commission. Precinct is listed on your voter registration card.

On your voter registration card the district's are indicated.