District court, Judicial District 5

Joseph W. Seidlin

District Court Judge · District 5C · Polk County

About

Appointed to this post in 2018¹
Next on the ballot: November 2032, in District 5C²

Judge Seidlin, Polk County, was appointed as a District Court Judge in November 2018, after serving as a District Associate Judge since August, 2013. Before that, he served as a Polk County Magistrate for 8 years. Judge Seidlin attended Drake University where he received his undergraduate degree in 1982, and…

Full biography on iowacourts.gov

Retention votes

Election	Yes	No	Kept by
November 3, 2026	92,547	46,747	66.4% yes

What lawyers said

Before each retention vote, the Iowa State Bar Association asks lawyers who’ve appeared before the judge to rate them from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent), and whether the judge should be kept.³

96.4% of 138 responding lawyers said to keep the judge (2026).

Question	2026
Knowledge and use of the law	4.6
Sees the facts of a case clearly	4.6
On time for court	4.7
Listens to arguments and testimony	4.6
Runs the courtroom well	4.7
Temperament and manner	4.6
Clear, well-written decisions	4.6
Rules promptly	4.6
Uses technology to improve the courts	4.6
Avoids needless personal criticism	4.7
Decides on the law and facts, not outside pressure	4.6
Courteous and patient	4.7
Treats people equally	4.7
Fair to people without a lawyer	4.6
Said to keep the judge	96.4%
Lawyers responding	138

Source: Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review: 2026 (page 44).

Appeals from this judge’s cases

3 appeals on record; 0 reversed or vacated at least in part.⁴

Criminal appeal No. 25-1085
Iowa Court of Appeals · November 4, 2026 · Polk County · AFFIRMED
Criminal appeal No. 25-2175
Iowa Court of Appeals · November 4, 2026 · Polk County · AFFIRMED
Eugene Sikora v. State of Iowa and Dr. Beth Skinner, in her official capacity as Director of the Iowa Department of Corrections
Iowa Supreme Court · June 27, 2025 · Polk County · Affirmed
AI summary A former prisoner sued the State of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Corrections for money damages, claiming they kept him in custody longer than they should have due to a calculation error. The prisoner argued that certain legal claims should not have been dis…

Notes

From the Judicial Branch’s biography of the judge. ↩
Expected: retained judges serve 6 years before the next vote (Iowa Code §46.16). A judge who retires or reaches 72 leaves sooner. ↩
Scores from the Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review, a survey of Iowa lawyers who appeared before the judge. The ISBA publishes it before each retention election; only the numbers are shown here, with a link to the page of its report they’re on. ↩
Most cases are never appealed, and a reversal can turn on a change in the law or a close question, so these counts say little about a judge’s work on their own. Iowa Funnel has Supreme Court opinions since November 2017 and Court of Appeals opinions from November 2026. ↩

Sources: the Iowa Judicial Branch; retention votes from the Iowa Secretary of State and civicAPI; lawyers’ ratings from the Iowa State Bar Association.