Eight Illinois associate judges — five presiding in a single county — will be forced to hang up their robes.

The administrative arm of the Illinois Supreme Court announced that 376 of the 384 associate judges who applied for subsequent four-year terms were officially retained by their circuits.

But unlike the last two retention results, which together led to only one judge losing a job, this year’s vote of circuit judges — released Thursday — cost several spots and cleared nearly half of the associate judge roster in Madison County, just across the river from St. Louis.

Associate Judges Duane Bailey, Ben L. Beyers II, Donald M. Flack, , David K. Grounds, and Elizabeth R. Levy did not get the required 60 percent vote from circuit judges to remain on the bench.

“I was surprised,” said 3rd Judicial Circuit Chief Judge David Hylla. “I could speculate, but I’m not going to. I don’t think it’s fair to these people that just lost their jobs. I just really don’t know.”

Bailey declined to comment. Beyers, Levy, Flack and Grounds could not be reached.

The associate judges’ terms don’t technically end until June 30. But Hylla said he got permission from the Supreme Court to post the vacancies last week and begin taking applications for the openings.

Perry J. Browder, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and a shareholder at the Madison County-based firm Simmons, Hanly, Conroy LLC, said he was also caught off-guard when he heard the news.

“I would assume that the chief judge and the circuits have done a thorough review and have made a decision that this is what’s best for the court system,” Browder said.

Additionally, Associate Judges Richard P. Klaus of the 6th Judicial Circuit in Champaign County, Domenica A. Osterberger of the Will County Circuit Court and Laninya A. Cason of the 20th Judicial Circuit in St. Clair County were not retained.

They also could not be reached for comment.

Of the eight judges, six were rated highly enough in a survey of bar association members in their area to get a “Recommended” label. Cason and Klaus were the only ones in the group deemed “Not Recommended” in the survey produced by the Illinois State Bar Association.

Judges automatically get a “Recommended” endorsement if 65 percent or more of respondents agree that the candidate “meets acceptable requirements for the office.”

John E. Thies, a partner at Webber & Thies P.C. in Urbana and past president of the Illinois State Bar Association, called the polls “one of the most accurate predictors” of an individual’s qualifications for the bench.

“The people that complete these surveys have a connection to the judge, and where I’ve compared my own experience with a judge versus what the polling information reflects, it’s usually been very accurate,” Thies said.

In the 6th Judicial Circuit, Chief Judge Daniel L. Flannell said he didn’t want to go into too much detail about why Klaus was not retained.

Some of his decisions had drawn scrutiny for being heavy-handed. He rejected a plea deal in a 2014 case, for instance, involving a nurse and single mother who was intoxicated while driving an ATV and was involved in a crash that killed her 19-year-old cousin.

The deal would have kept the woman, Katheryn Daly, out of prison. But Klaus rejected the agreement struck by prosecutors and the defense, sentencing Daly to 3½ years incarceration.

That decision was later overturned by the 4th District Appellate Court, which said that Klaus had abused his discretion.

“We don’t second-guess ultimate decisions,” Flannell said. “This was a situation involving behavior or approach that we thought was not a correctable thing. We talked about this long and hard. Talked with Judge Klaus about it on a couple of occasions. And we didn’t feel like it was appropriate to go forward for another four years.”

He said later that Klaus is still “an excellent lawyer” who will land on his feet.

“It’s a sad situation that had to happen,” Flannell said. “But I’m confident that he will continue to be a success in this field.”