This week's question was, What percentage of the 10,000 elections we looked at this year were uncontested?

You answered: 29.8%
The correct answer is 60.4%.

In a new analysis of more than 10,000 local elections across 17 states, Ballotpedia found that more than 60% of local general elections in 2023 went uncontested. In total, 6,589 (60.4%) of these elections were uncontested, while 4,322 (39.6%) were contested. For comparison, in 2022, just 3% of congressional elections, 11% of state executive races, and 32% of state legislative races were uncontested nationwide. In 2021, just 5.9% of state legislative races were uncontested.

The data include a sample of local elections taken from 17 states and elections for offices such as school boards, city and local council members, county commissioners, judges, clerks, treasurers, auditors, assessors, and other local offices. The 17 states were Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Ballotpedia did not include primary elections in this dataset.

Elections for treasurer (87.3% uncontested) and clerk (85.6% uncontested) were the least contested. The rates of uncontested races for other offices were:

• Local judge - 76.5%
• Local councilmember - 57.6%
• School boards - 53.4%
• Mayor - 47.4%

Thanks for your response!