76% of last June’s elections were uncontested

Throughout June, Ballotpedia covered 5,065 elections in 25 states, 76% of which were uncontested.

That’s up from May when 70% of the 5,799 covered were uncontested.

Ballotpedia defines an uncontested election as one where the number of candidates running is less than or equal to the number of seats up for election. This analysis does not account for write-in candidates.

In June, Ballotpedia covered More than 500 elections in Maine, New York, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina. Of those four, New York had the highest rate of uncontested elections, at 94%, while South Carolina had the lowest rate, at 54%. When data from the ten states where more than 200 elections were covered is included, both states hold their respective ranks.

June’s rate of uncontested elections was greater than the 58% average rate identified between 2018 and 2023.

It also brings the year-to-date rate of uncontested elections to 73%.

For comparison, since 2018, each year has had more elections uncontested than contested except for one, in 2021, when 50.4% of the elections Ballotpedia covered were contested.

So far this year, local judicial elections have had the least amount of competition. Ballotpedia has covered 170 such elections to date in 2024, 143 (84%) of which were uncontested.

And that trend appears poised to continue through the rest of the year.

While we are still gathering candidate information for upcoming elections, based on the data available today, Ballotpedia will cover 3,583 local judicial elections by the end of the year, 3,174 (89%) of which were or will be uncontested.