Tuesday’s primaries brought more than political signposts for November’s midterm elections. In two races, thousands of miles apart, voters also once again showed their power to remove officials for behavior they consider unfit for public office.

In California, voters recalled Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced Stanford student Brock Turner to six months in jail in 2016 for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. At the time, Judge Persky said he was concerned “a prison sentence would have a severe impact” on Mr. Turner. He did not mention the young woman, known as Emily Doe, at all. It was the first time in 80 years that Californians voted to recall a judge. This is and should remain a rare tactic, but leaders of the recall effort say Persky demonstrated a pattern of leniency toward those who abused and assaulted women.

In Alabama, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin, who admitted to pocketing $750,000 intended to feed inmates in the jail he oversaw, was voted out of a job. Alabama law allows sheriffs to keep any taxpayer dollars left over from their intended purposes. Mr. Entrekin is one of 49 sheriffs accused of abusing the law in a civil rights suit brought by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Southern Center for Human Rights. They also argue that it creates a “perverse incentive” for sheriffs to spend as little as possible to feed the inmates in their care.

Both are indicators that voters can take a stand – and that when it comes to demanding principled behavior of elected officials, every vote matters.

Now here are our stories of the day, including the latest astrobiological detective work from the Red Planet and a staple of summer whose place is being reconsidered.