That’s the finding of the largest recent survey of American races. We’re the league that’s fixing it. And if you’re willing, we’ll teach you to be the second name.
In 2025, Ballotpedia analyzed 38,606 elections across 49 states. 26,315 of them had only one candidate on the ballot. Over the last eight years the average is 65%.
| The offices closest to your life | Uncontested in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cemetery districts | |
| Water districts | |
| Local judges | |
| School boards | |
| Mayors | |
| City councils |
November 2025 general elections. Source: Ballotpedia, Analysis of uncontested elections, 2025. The published figure is likely conservative: some states cancel uncontested races outright, so those seats may never reach a ballot or a tally.
Every ballot-qualified candidate in a race we cover gets the same written invitation, the same speaking time, the same table, and the same questions. Their answers are printed in their own words, unedited. We never rate them, rank them, or tell you who to pick.
A ballot with one name is a ballot with a missing person. We teach ordinary citizens — with a deliberate focus on young ones — what the offices are, what they actually do, what filing costs, and how to walk through the door. Then we stand beside them during filing week.
A library room, a grange hall, a brewery back room. Everyone on the ballot invited on identical terms. Bring a question.
Free, open to anyone of any party or none. What the offices are. What they pay. What filing costs. How to knock 200 doors without quitting.
Every local race in our territory at risk of going unopposed. Then we spend until May making that list shorter.
Most organizations tell you an overhead percentage they achieved. It’s a result. It can change. Nobody has to answer for it. Ours is a ceiling written into the governing document — the board cannot exceed it by deciding to.
The cap reads “5% of dues and donations, or $2,500, whichever is greater.” The floor covers a small organization’s unavoidable legal minimum; the 95/5 ratio governs from roughly $50,000 in revenue upward. We publish the arithmetic rather than rounding it away.
We take no position on taxes, land use, schools, guns, health care, growth, water, or any other question a candidate might run on. Ask us and you’ll get the same answer every time: that’s the candidate’s business and the voter’s decision.
Nonpartisanship is a bylaws article, amendable only by a supermajority vote of the full membership — not by a board on a Tuesday.
Every county charter names nonpartisanship violations explicitly as cause for revocation. It’s the firewall, and we will use it.
Every event keeps its invitation log and RSVP file. Fairness here is provable, not merely claimed.
Full voting membership. Priority on workshop seats and first call on named event roles.
Join as a studentFull voting membership, all events, and the guides and Empty Ballot List before they’re public.
JoinTwo voting members at one address. One mailbox, two ballots at the annual meeting.
Join as a householdYour name in the founding roll and a designation that cannot be bought again after year one.
Become a founderMembers elect the board. Members amend the bylaws. At least one board seat is reserved for a member under 30 — written into the bylaws, not offered as a courtesy.
Washington fills most of its local offices in odd-numbered years, when almost nobody is watching. School boards, city and town councils, fire districts, port districts, cemetery and park districts.
Filing week is the first Monday in May through that Friday. For many of these seats it costs ten dollars to put your name on the ballot — or a petition, at one signature per dollar, if ten dollars is real money to you.
We are chartering our first counties across Washington now, and we’ll charter in neighboring states as members ask for it. If you want one in your county, you don’t have to wait to be invited.
Empowering voters. Defending the Republic.
Join for the price of a couple of coffees, or come to something free first. Nobody will ask you for money at the door.