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Elections

State profile

Additional elections

Statistics

Ballotpedia covers tens of thousands of school board elections across the United States each year. This page contains links to this state's school districts where Ballotpedia is covering elections in 2026. The following table lists districts that overlap with the nation's 100 largest cities or that are among the nation's 200 largest school districts and for which Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage.

Editor's note: Some school districts choose to cancel the primary election, or both the primary and general election, if the number of candidates who filed does not meet a certain threshold. The table below does not reflect which primary or general elections were canceled. Please click through to each school district's page for more information.

2026 Virginia School Board Elections
District	Primary	Primary Runoff	General Election	General Runoff Election	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2023-2024 enrollment
Chesapeake Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	5	9	40,576
Fairfax County Public Schools	-	-	3/3/2026	-	1	12	180,714
Norfolk Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	5	7	26,882
Virginia Beach City Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	6	11	64,986

Election rules

View election rules

Election dates and frequency

See also: Rules governing school board election dates and timing

Most county boards of education have elections in odd-numbered years either every two years or every four years. As of 2022, elections in all but one county — Arlington County — were off-cycle from federal elections. They are held at the same time as the state's odd-year state legislative and gubernatorial elections. There are 91 county school districts in Virginia. The Arlington County School Board holds elections every year.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 15.2

The elections for most city and town school boards are held during even-numbered years and are on-cycle with federal elections. There are several cities that hold school board elections in odd-numbered years or annually. Details of city and town school board elections are largely set in local charters. There are 41 municipal school districts in Virginia.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1-57.3

Election system

School board members in Virginia are elected through nonpartisan general elections without primaries.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1. Education and Section 24.1. Elections

Party labels on the ballot

See also: Rules governing party labels in school board elections

School board elections in Virginia are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates. Virginia state law requires that school board candidates qualify for the ballot through the petition process for independent candidates. It does not allow school board candidates to qualify for the ballot as party nominees. This means that all school board candidates in Virginia are listed as independent in the secretary of state's official candidate list. On the ballot, the names of candidates are displayed without any party affiliation or additional disclosure of any kind. There is no route in state law for a school board candidate to be listed on the ballot with a party affiliation.

See law: Virginia Statutes Sections 22.1. Education and 24.1. Elections

Winning an election

School board candidates that receive the largest number of votes in the nonpartisan general election are elected to office.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1. Education and Section 24.1. Elections

Term length and staggering

The length of school board member terms depends on the terms of the members of the relevant county, city, or town governing body. As of 2022, most school districts (121 or 91.7%) had 4-year school board terms. Ten school districts had 3-year board member terms.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1. Education and Section 24.1. Elections

School board seat elections are either not staggered or staggered in a way that depends on the organization of the district and the relevant county, city, or town prior to the referendum establishing elected board members; special act; or local charter. State law has special provisions concerning the staggering of school board elections in Bath, Loudoun, Pittsylvania, Pulaski, and Rockbridge Counties.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1. Education and Section 24.1. Elections

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

School members are elected at large, from sub-districts, or through a combination of the two.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1. Education and Section 24.1. Elections

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

School board candidates must file declarations of candidacy by 7:00 pm on the third Tuesday in June.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 24.1. Elections

School board candidates cannot circulate nominating petitions until after the first day of January of the year of the election.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 24.1. Elections

Newly elected school board members officially take office on the first day of January following their election.

See law: Virginia Statutes Section 22.1. Education

Recalls

See also: Recall campaigns in Virginia and School board recalls

State	Specific grounds required?	Signature requirement	Petition circulation time	When recalls can start
Virginia	Yes: neglect of duty, misuse of office, incompetence, and upon conviction of certain crimes^[1]	10% of votes cast in the last election for the office	No time limit	Recalls can start at any time

State profile

Demographic data for Virginia
	Virginia	U.S.
Total population:	8,367,587	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	39,490	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	69%	73.6%
Black/African American:	19.2%	12.6%
Asian:	6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	3.2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	8.6%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	88.3%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	36.3%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$65,015	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Virginia. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Virginia

Virginia voted for the Democratic candidate in five out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, five are located in Virginia, accounting for 2.43 percent of the total pivot counties.^[2]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Virginia had five Retained Pivot Counties, 2.76 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Virginia coverage on Ballotpedia

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

Five of 133 Virginia counties—3.8 percent—are Pivot Counties. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

Counties won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012 and 2008
County	Trump margin of victory in 2016	Obama margin of victory in 2012	Obama margin of victory in 2008
Buckingham County, Virginia	11.28%	2.43%	0.87%
Caroline County, Virginia	5.02%	8.24%	11.97%
Essex County, Virginia	2.14%	7.30%	10.35%
Nelson County, Virginia	5.59%	2.72%	9.15%
Westmoreland County, Virginia	7.14%	6.95%	10.24%

Note: Although it is highlighted in the map above, the city of Chesapeake is not considered a county and not included in our calculations as such.

In the 2016 presidential election, Virginia was a battleground state. Hillary Clinton (D) won Virginia with 49.7 percent of the vote. Donald Trump (R) received 44.4 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Virginia voted Democratic 56.67 percent of the time and Republican 43.33 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Virginia voted Democratic three times (2008, 2012, and 2016) and Republican two times (2000 and 2004).

The following charts show the total number of school board races and candidates covered by Ballotpedia each year since 2023.

Election data analysis

School board election data analysis, 2025

The following analysis includes school districts that overlap with the nation's 100 largest cities or that are among the nation's 200 largest school districts and for which Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage.

Ballotpedia covered school board elections for seven seats in three school districts in Virginia in 2025. Below are some statistics about what happened in those elections. To read the full report on school board election analysis across the country in 2025, click here.

13 candidates ran for election, an average of 1.9 candidates per seat.
57% of school board incumbents ran for re-election, leaving 42.90% of the seats open for newcomers.
50% of incumbents were elected to new seats, winning 29% of the seats up for election.
Non-incumbent candidates won 5 of the seats.
14% of seats up for election were unopposed.

Footnotes

↑ Code of Virginia, "§ 24.2-233. (Effective until January 1, 2024) Removal of elected and certain appointed officers by courts," accessed July 29, 2021
↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[virginia-1] Code of Virginia, "§ 24.2-233. (Effective until January 1, 2024) Removal of elected and certain appointed officers by courts," accessed July 29, 2021

[2] The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[1]

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Virginia	School Boards	News and Analysis

Public education in Virginia List of school districts in Virginia School board elections in Virginia	School board elections, 2026 School board elections, 2025 Virginia school board elections, 2025	Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey School board election data analysis, 2025

Virginia school board elections, 2026

Contents

Election rules

Election dates and frequency

Election system

Party labels on the ballot

Winning an election

Term length and staggering

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

Recalls

State profile

Presidential voting pattern

Pivot Counties (2016)

Pivot Counties (2020)

Pivot Counties

Pivot Counties

Election data analysis

See also

Footnotes

Information about voting

2026 Elections

2025 Elections

Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

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Additional analysis

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