Issue: Texas Election Code section 172.021(g) requires petition signatures "from each court of appeals district." Does this include the Fifteenth Court of Appeals?
Response from the Texas Secretary of State's Office [dated April 10, 2025]:
Section 172.021(g) requires candidates for chief justice or justice of the Supreme Court, or presiding judge or judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals to submit a petition in addition to a filing fee for the primary. The minimum number of signatures that must appear on the petition is 50 from each court of appeals district. SB 1045 created the Fifteenth Court of Appeals district effective September 1, 2024. Therefore, primary candidates for the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who choose to pay the filing fee must also accompany the application and fee with a petition containing at least 750 signatures.
Our advice for signatures from the 15th Court of Appeals is the same as our past advice for other court of appeal districts that share territory. The 1st Court of Appeals and 14th Court of Appeals share the same territory. Additionally, some portions of the 12th Court of Appeals’ territory overlap with the 6th Court of Appeals’ territory, and parts of the 5th Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction overlap with the 6th Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction.
The Election Code does not specify whether a voter who resides in territory that is contained within more than one court of appeals district can provide a signature that contributes to the 50-signature requirement for more than one court of appeals district. A court could determine that a voter can sign a candidate’s judicial petition more than once if they reside in more than one court of appeals district. However, to reduce the potential of a challenge to the candidate’s petition, we recommend that a candidate collect 50 unique signatures (i.e., one signature per voter) from each court of appeals district rather than having a voter who resides in multiple court of appeals districts sign the petition multiple times. The Statewide Judicial Office on Primary Ballot petition form contains a column where signers indicate which court of appeals district the signer lives in. Therefore, candidate petitions would need to contain at least 750 signatures of which 50 signatures must be from signers listing the 15th court of appeals as their district of residence.
