Utah Court of Appeals Judge Gregory K. Orme will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot for a retention vote.

Retention races are nonpartisan yes-or-no questions in which voters decide whether to keep a sitting judge, according to BallotReady election data. Orme has been certified for the ballot. The retention question will appear on ballots across Utah, including in Alpine, Highland, Cedar Hills and Lehi.

Candidate information

  • Name: Gregory Keith Orme
  • Office: Utah Court of Appeals judge
  • Race: Retain Orme? (Yes/No), nonpartisan
  • Election: Nov. 3, 2026, Utah General Election
  • Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, University of Utah (1975); juris doctor, George Washington University (1978)

Experience and public service

Gov. Norman H. Bangerter appointed Orme to the Utah Court of Appeals in January 1987, when the court was first established, according to his biography on the Utah Courts website. He is one of the court's original members. He has held the seat since.

Before joining the bench, Orme worked as a law clerk under McKay at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and as an attorney at VanCott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy, according to BallotReady.

Orme has served as presiding judge of the Utah Court of Appeals, according to the Utah Courts website. His additional judicial service includes membership on the Utah Judicial Council, the Utah Sentencing Commission, the Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee and the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Appellate Procedure. He chaired both the Ethics Advisory Committee and the Commissioner Conduct Committee.

Outside the courtroom, Orme has served as a judicial advisor to the Utah Bar Journal and as an executive committee member of the Utah State Bar's Appellate Practice Section.

The Utah State Bar named Orme its Young Lawyer of the Year in 1986 and its Judge of the Year in 2007, according to the Utah Courts website. He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. The Young Lawyer award came a year before his appointment to the appeals court, and the Judge of the Year honor followed two decades on the bench.

This profile is based on publicly available court records and election data. No issue responses or policy statements from this candidate were available.