A. Organization. There is established a Committee on Judicial Elections. The Committee shall consist of nine (9) members. Three (3) members shall be members of the Oklahoma Bar Association, in good standing, who are not judges of a court of record. Three members shall be district judges or associate district judges with at least 10 years of service. These judges may be judges in active service or they may be retired judges with the required length of service before their retirement. Three members shall be lay persons.

B. Appointment. The Board of Governors of the Oklahoma Bar Association shall appoint the attorney members and the lay members of the committee. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall appoint the judge members. The terms of the initial appointments to the Committee shall be as follows: two attorney members, two judge members and one lay member shall be appointed for a term of four years; one attorney member, one judge member and two lay members shall be appointed for a term of eight (8) years. Following the initial appointments the terms of service for the members of the Committee shall be for eight (8) years.

If a member of the Committee changes his or her status as a member of one of the three (3) categories of membership, the Committee member shall immediately submit his or her resignation from the Committee to the Chairperson of the Committee. The Chairperson of the Committee shall provide notice of resignation to the appointing authority for the affected category of membership. Within sixty (60) days the appointing authority shall appoint a new member of the Committee. The resignation of the former committee member shall not be effective until the replacement member is appointed. The replacement member shall be appointed for the remainder of the unexpired term of the former member and may be reappointed.

If a member of the committee resigns for a reason other than a change of eligibility status or death the procedure set out in the previous paragraph shall be followed in appointing a new committee member.

C. Chairperson. The chairperson and vice-chairperson shall be elected by the members of the Committee from members appointed by the Board of Governors of the Oklahoma Bar Association. The term of office for the chairperson and vice-chairperson shall be four (4) years, and these officers may be reelected for two additional terms. The chairperson and vice-chairperson shall furnish their contact information to the Administrative Director of the Courts and ensure that such information is accurate and up to date.

D. Confidentiality. Except as provided under Rule 3 L and Rule 5 A all filings, documents, correspondence and proceedings before the Committee shall be confidential and shall not be released to the public.