2005 West Virginia Code - §51-2A-5. — Term of office of family court judge; initial appointment; elections.

§51-2A-5. Term of office of family court judge; initial appointment; elections.

(a) Before the first day of December, two thousand one, family court judges shall be appointed by the governor to serve in the family court circuits as provided for in section three of this article. The initial term of office for the family court judges first appointed shall commence on the first day of January, two thousand two, and end on the thirty-first day of December, two thousand two.
(b) Beginning with the primary and general elections to be conducted in the year two thousand two, family court judges shall be elected. In family court circuits having two or more family court judges there shall be, for election purposes, numbered divisions corresponding to the number of family court judges in each area. Each family court judge shall be elected at large by the entire family court circuit. In each numbered division of a family court circuit, the candidates for nomination or election shall be voted upon and the votes cast for the candidates in each division shall be tallied separately from the votes cast for candidates in other numbered divisions within the family court circuit. The candidate or candidates receiving the highest number of the votes cast within a numbered division shall be nominated or elected, as the case may be.
(c) The term of office for all family court judges elected in two thousand two shall be for six years, commencing on the first day of January, two thousand three, and ending on the thirty-first day of December, two thousand eight. Subsequent terms of office for family court judges elected thereafter shall be for eight years.