The Texas District Courts form part of the Texas judicial system and are the trial courts of general jurisdiction of Texas. As of September 2011, 456 district courts serve the state, each with a single judge, elected by partisan election to a four-year term. In sparsely populated areas, a single district can cover numerous counties: several districts span five counties, for example. Some counties share numerous overlapping districts, such as the 12 districts that serve the same 13 county region of central and eastern Texas, with each district covering the entirety of the 13 counties.