Every local race in our territory at risk of going unopposed. Published every February. Shortened by every May.
The Empty Ballot List names every office in a covered county for which fewer than two candidates have filed or are expected to file — regardless of who holds the seat or who has filed. It is published complete or not at all. The League recruits for seats, never against anyone; incumbents receive the same invitations and the same free workshop as everyone else.
Compiled each January from the county auditor’s filings and the offices up for election that year; verified reports from the public are added after checking against the auditor’s records; published in February; updated through filing week in May. Source and date appear on every county list.
Each February, our chapters compile every local seat coming up for election in their county — from the county elections office, which is public information — and flag the ones that have gone uncontested before or currently have no announced challenger.
Then we publish the whole list. Names of offices, not names of people. What the seat does, what it pays, what it costs to file, and when.
It is the least glamorous document we produce — and exactly the kind of document local press picks up.
We do not name incumbents, characterize them, or suggest anyone should be replaced. A good officeholder running unopposed is still an election without a choice. The problem is the empty side of the ballot, not the filled one.
Every name on our email list gets the same list on the same day. Any person of any persuasion may use it.
Some of these seats are hard, thankless, and time-consuming. We’ll tell you honestly which ones.
[X] races in our territory were headed for no contest. [Y] now have a choice. Published every year — whether that’s forty-one and seventeen, or forty-one and three.
A civic organization that only reports its good years isn’t reporting.
Find your district, see what’s open, and come to the April filing clinic.
Find my districtSend them the row. That’s how most of this works — research consistently finds that being asked is among the strongest predictors that a person runs.
Send this list to someoneThe underlying data, methodology, and county sources are available on request, and we’ll walk you through them.
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