Over half of Oklahoma’s school board elections canceled due to uncontested races


General elections for Oklahoma school boards were held on April 2. Of the 26 school districts Ballotpedia covered in the state, 16 canceled their general elections for 17 seats. Fourteen of those districts canceled due to lack of opposition, while the other two canceled after incumbents took more than 50 percent of the vote in the February 12 primaries, winning the seats outright.
 
Of the elections canceled due to lack of opposition, 13 incumbents automatically won re-election and four newcomers won new terms by default.
 
In the 10 school districts that did hold general elections on April 2, a total of 10 seats were on the ballot. Seven of the incumbents ran to retain their seats, leaving three open for newcomers. Six incumbents won new terms, and one was defeated by a challenger. One of the 10 school districts—Tulsa Public Schools—had enough candidates file to run to hold a primary on February 12. The primary narrowed the field from eight candidates to two for the general election.
 
These 26 school districts served a combined total of 261,543 students during the 2016-2017 school year.
 
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