{"id":72074,"date":"2026-06-26T16:30:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=72074"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:30:17","slug":"deadline-extended-to-apply-for-two-polk-county-judge-vacancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/26\/deadline-extended-to-apply-for-two-polk-county-judge-vacancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadline extended to apply for two Polk County judge vacancies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"757874\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"299\" height=\"168\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/download-1-5.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-72075 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #757874; width:445px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 10th Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) frequently adjusts these windows to ensure a robust, highly qualified pool of applicants for our local bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For these county court seats\u2014which handle misdemeanor cases, traffic offenses, and civil disputes under $50,000\u2014the process follows a strict constitutional pipeline:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Application Window:<\/strong> Once the extended deadline closes, the JNC will review the submitted applications, which include extensive legal histories, writing samples, and peer recommendations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Public Interviews:<\/strong> The commission will schedule and conduct public interviews with the applicants at the Polk County Courthouse in Bartow.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Shortlist:<\/strong> Following interviews, the JNC will deliberate and select a list of <strong>three to six nominees<\/strong> for each vacancy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gubernatorial Appointment:<\/strong> These names are then forwarded to Governor Ron DeSantis, who by law has 60 days to make the final appointments to fill the vacant seats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 10th Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) frequently adjusts these windows to ensure a robust, highly qualified pool of applicants for our local bench. For these county court seats\u2014which&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtNS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yOTklMkMxNjgmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJEZWFkbGluZSBleHRlbmRlZCB0byBhcHBseSBmb3IgdHdvIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IGp1ZGdlIHZhY2FuY2llcyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.Wfqx0C687pcAw-5VuRRjilYzPntqdD50IiM9nvcaQf4MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xLTUud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IkRlYWRsaW5lIGV4dGVuZGVkIHRvIGFwcGx5IGZvciB0d28gUG9sayBDb3VudHkganVkZ2UgdmFjYW5jaWVzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.aX9Cnqdxtr4AQCVvu2B7Dk6U6b6H2CByAr8XIdmB7loMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[15016],"class_list":["post-72074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-deadline-extended-to-apply-for-two-polk-county-judge-vacancies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72076,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72074\/revisions\/72076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}