Fifty-five races in Marin County will have no competition in the Nov. 3 election, including six city council seats, 30 special district positions and 19 school district seats, according to the Marin County Elections Department.
The lack of challengers means voters will have fewer choices in dozens of local races, while some candidates will take office through appointment rather than an election.
On Sept. 8, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of 54 candidates to fill uncontested seats in 30 special districts, following a process allowed under state law.
Marin County Registrar of Voters Natalie Adona reported at the supervisors meeting that uncontested special district races most often occur in smaller and under-resourced districts, so the appointment process shifts electoral decisions from voters to the board of supervisors more often than an election.
“Which raises a concern that already lower-participation areas lose direct voter agency while better-resourced districts have a higher probability of retaining contested elections,” Adona said. “The main equity risk to flag is that appointments can reinforce existing insider networks rather than broaden representation, unless the Board applies transparent criteria and considers demographic and geographic balance when appointing.”
Hand-picked candidates
Dan Miller, a filing official with the Marin County Elections Department, said the special districts select their own candidates for appointment. School districts and municipalities follow separate procedures for appointing candidates and filling vacancies. The appointments avoid the cost of holding elections with no opponents and prevents vacancies in districts responsible for essential public services, he said.
According to the department, there were an insufficient number of candidates running for the Bolinas-Stinson Union School District, the Laguna Joint School District and the Nicasio School District. The remaining school districts had as many candidates as seats.
“The main equity risk to flag is that appointments can reinforce existing insider networks rather than broaden representation …”
Natalie Adona, Marin County Registrar of Voters
Adona said the reason many of these races are still on the ballot is because state law requires the contests to be available to voters if a municipality also has a local measure on ballot in the same election. The only exception is the city of Belvedere, which requested that its contest go to ballot anyway, even with no measure on the ballot, she said.
Marin has seen similar situations in previous elections. In 2022, Mill Valley canceled its City Council election and appointed councilmembers because the number of candidates did not exceed the number of available seats.
The pattern of uncontested races also extends beyond local government. BallotReady, a nonprofit organization that analyzes elections, reported that uncontested congressional races increased following the 2020 redistricting cycle, with increases in 2022 and again in 2024.
More than 50 congressional primaries went uncontested in 2024, according to the organization’s analysis, and some were canceled because no challengers entered the race.
