Party labels in Arizona school board elections
|
| Arizona overview: • Election dates: On-cycle |
| Key policies: • Election dates and timing • Party labels on the ballot |
| Key terms • On-cycle elections • Off-cycle elections • Off-year elections • Off-date elections • Party labels • Partisan elections • Nonpartisan elections |
School board elections in Arizona are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates.
See law:
Arizona Statutes Section 15-422 and Section 16-502
There were 214 public school districts in Arizona with a total of 984 school board member seats as of 2022. Those school districts operated a total of 1,509 schools serving 935,289 students.
Arizona is one of 41 states with state laws providing for nonpartisan school board elections.
The information in this page was last updated in 2022. Please email editor@ballotpedia.org with any updates, corrections, exceptions, or improvements.
Arizona state law governing party labels on the ballot for school board elections
School board elections in Arizona are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates.
See law:
Arizona Statutes Section 15-422 and Section 16-502
Arizona Statute Section 15-422 governs the nominating petitions for school board candidates. It requires that "the names of all persons whose petitions have been filed shall appear on a ballot, without partisan or other designation except the title of the office."
Arizona Statute Section 16-502 governs the form and contents of general election ballots. It establishes that the ballot must be divided up into two sections, with section 1 labeled as Partisan Ballot and section 2 labeled as Nonpartisan Ballot. Section 16-502 states that the Nonpartisan Ballot section of the ballot contains supreme court and other judicial candidates, school district officials, and other nonpartisan offices.
Examples of how school board candidates appear on the ballot in Arizona
Below is an excerpt from a local candidate list for a November general election in Arizona showing some offices with the party affiliation of candidates displayed and others, including school board races, without party affiliation of candidates displayed:
How does Arizona compare to other states?
Across the country, there are 13,187 public school districts governed by a total of 83,183 school board members. They are elected directly by voters except for a small handful of exceptions who are appointed.
As of July 2025, over 85% of school boards are elected without any party labels on the ballot identifying the candidates' affiliation with a political party. State laws in five states containing 1,169 school districts (9%) provide for party labels on the ballot for school board elections. In five states containing 554 districts (4%), state laws effectively provide for both the option of including or not including party labels on the ballot for school board elections. In the remaining states with elected local school board members, state law provides for school board elections without the inclusion of party labels on the ballot.
Elections in which party labels are included on the ballot are referred to as partisan elections. Elections in which party labels are not included on the ballot are referred to as nonpartisan elections.
The state laws of 40 states containing 11,472 school districts provide for school board elections without party labels identifying the affiliation of candidates listed on the ballot (nonpartisan elections).
State laws of five states provide for school board elections with party labels identifying the affiliation of candidates listed on the ballot (partisan elections):
State laws of five states containing 554 school districts effectively provide both options depending on the district. The details and the number of districts that fall in each category vary among the states. Those five states are:
See also
|
School board election rules: |
School board election coverage: |
Terms and context: |
| |||||
| ||||||||||||||||
Footnotes
