Throughout August, Ballotpedia covered 457 elections in 17 states, 23% of which were uncontested.

That’s down from July, when 29% of the 31 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.

Among the states with the most uncontested elections, 76% of races in Kansas were uncontested, and 75% were uncontested in Mississippi. No uncontested elections were recorded in California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Utah, and Wisconsin, though each state had between one and seven races in the sample. Washington had the largest number of races covered (262), with 13% uncontested. Michigan followed with 60 races, 19 of which were uncontested (32%).

August’s rate of uncontested elections was less than the 64% average rate identified between 2018 and 2024.

It also brings the year-to-date rate of uncontested elections to 74%. 

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.