Cory Swanson, the Broadwater County Attorney, will be heading one county over to become the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, while district court Judge Katherine Bidegaray will replace outgoing justice Dirk Sandefur on the state’s highest court.

This year Montanans voted to fill two open seats on the Montana Supreme Court, an associate justice and chief justice.

The election for clerk of the state Supreme Court is a low-profile contest, but still bears some shrapnel of the larger political disputes in recent years.

Katherine Bidegaray currently leads Dan Wilson in the election for Montana State Supreme Court, Seat 3, according to initial voting results from the Secretary of State website.

Judicial candidates Cory Swanson and Katherine Bidegaray claimed victory Wednesday in their respective races for two open seats on the Montana Supreme Court. Statewide vote counts showed them outstripping their respective competitors Jerry Lynch and Dan Wilson by margins of roughly eight percentage points.

Ohio voters will make decisions on three supreme court races that will determine which political party controls the bench.

In the race for Minnesota's Supreme Court chief justice, Hudson was leading Stephen Emery 55.83% to 43.8%, with more than 116,000 votes counted as of 9:50 p.m. Tuesday. Votes were still being counted late Tuesday night.