Ballotpedia's Coverage of School Board Races Expands in 2023
Offering comprehensive information on more local school board races than ever before
MIDDLETON, Wis., Oct. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ballotpedia currently covers school board elections in all school districts in the 100 largest cities by population and the 200 largest school districts by student enrollment in addition to nationwide coverage of school board recall elections. This year, the organization is adding to its coverage with a comprehensive look at all 2023 school board elections across ten states: Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
"Ballotpedia is, bar none, the best source for unbiased and comprehensive school board information. Our contemporary and historical school board coverage spans everything from recalls and district information to disagreements on conflict issues," said Geoff Pallay, Ballotpedia Editor-in-Chief. "By expanding our coverage to ten additional states, we're exploring more local races than ever?particularly in the area of endorsements? and we're planning to continue adding more going forward."
Ballotpedia's expanded coverage kicked off yesterday, with information about the seven candidates running for three seats on the Douglas County* School Board in Colorado.
The Douglas County, Colorado, School Board, which includes 90 schools with over 63,000 students in Castle Pines, Castle Rock, Larkspur, Lone Tree, and Parker, saw four newcomers establish a governing majority in 2021. Since then, the board has addressed several hot-button issues, including an educational equity plan and a superintendent dismissal. Most recently, one of the incumbent board members resigned, effective immediately, after alleging the board had become overly politicized.
Contested school board races
Earlier this year, Ballotpedia provided comprehensive school board election coverage in Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Between 60 and 80% of all seats up for election in those states were uncontested:
- 79% of school districts in SD did not hold elections because of uncontested races.
- 79% of all seats in OK were uncontested.
- 58% of all seats in WI were uncontested.
"We've been publishing data about the level of contested races for nearly 15 years," said Pallay. "This year as we've expanded that coverage to more local races and despite the attention given to school boards nationally, one trend Ballotpedia continues to see is large number of races with only one candidate on the ballot, or situations where there were no challengers to an incumbent, resulting in the election being canceled."
Endorsements in school board races
Throughout the remainder of 2023, Ballotpedia will capture, track, and analyze endorsements in school board elections across the ten states listed above.
Most school board elections nationwide are nonpartisan, meaning candidates appear on the ballot without party labels. Endorsements provide voters with helpful information regarding candidates' stances and policy positions.
To read more about how we gather and analyze endorsements, click here.
About Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is America's most trusted source of unbiased information on politics, elections and policy. Founded in 2007, Ballotpedia has grown from a small group of dedicated volunteers working on a handful of ballot measures to an essential resource for voters, media and researchers. Ballotpedia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the public interest in creating an educated, engaged electorate, and building a strong, healthy democracy. For free access to 420,000+ encyclopedic, professionally authored and curated articles, visit Ballotpedia.org.
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