Report · Washington

Most Washington Elections Aren’t Elections

2,077 of the 2,974 races on the November 2025 general election ballot in Washington had exactly one candidate — 69.8% were decided before anyone voted.

69.8%

of races in Washington had no opponent on the 2025 ballot — 2,077 of 2,974

A race counts as uncontested when exactly one candidate appeared on the ballot. Write-in lines and ballot measures are excluded.

Source WA Secretary of State official general election results, 2014-2025 · as of 2026-08-07

Findings

General elections only. Washington holds local elections in odd-numbered years, which is where the rate is highest — those are the ballots with the fire, water, cemetery and school seats on them.

By election

Uncontested rate by general election
Election	Races	Unopposed	Rate
November 4, 2025	2,974	2,077	69.8%
November 5, 2024	373	116	31.1%
November 7, 2023	3,077	2,093	68%
November 8, 2022	638	346	54.2%
November 2, 2021	2,909	1,915	65.8%
November 3, 2020	337	98	29.1%
November 5, 2019	3,116	2,169	69.6%
November 6, 2018	624	290	46.5%
November 7, 2017	3,039	2,135	70.3%
November 8, 2016	356	117	32.9%
November 3, 2015	2,878	2,155	74.9%
November 4, 2014	548	261	47.6%

By county, November 2025

Ordered by rate. Smaller counties sit at the top, which is the finding rather than a sampling artefact — there are fewer people to field a second candidate.

Uncontested rate by county, November 2025
County	Races	Unopposed	Rate
Garfield	5	5	100%
Klickitat	64	58	90.6%
Okanogan	75	67	89.3%
San Juan	48	42	87.5%
Asotin	16	14	87.5%
Whitman	125	109	87.2%
Skamania	29	25	86.2%
Columbia	19	16	84.2%
Pend Oreille	43	36	83.7%
Stevens	82	68	82.9%
Douglas	47	38	80.9%
Grant	101	81	80.2%
Kittitas	52	41	78.8%
Pacific	47	37	78.7%
Jefferson	32	25	78.1%
Lincoln	68	53	77.9%
Island	63	49	77.8%
Franklin	38	29	76.3%
Grays Harbor	87	66	75.9%
Lewis	103	78	75.7%
Cowlitz	43	32	74.4%
Chelan	57	42	73.7%
Mason	41	30	73.2%
Adams	46	33	71.7%
Clallam	38	27	71.1%
Walla Walla	36	25	69.4%
Whatcom	94	65	69.1%
Spokane	105	71	67.6%
Wahkiakum	18	12	66.7%
Ferry	12	8	66.7%
Yakima	99	63	63.6%
Skagit	78	49	62.8%
Kitsap	64	40	62.5%
Thurston	70	42	60%
Clark	78	44	56.4%
King	316	170	53.8%
Snohomish	164	87	53%
Benton	42	22	52.4%
Pierce	186	96	51.6%

Source WA Secretary of State official general election results, 2014–2025 · as of 2026-08-07

By kind of office

Not evenly distributed. The seats with the highest rates are mostly the ones with the lowest profile — park, cemetery, water and fire districts, where a filing fee and a handful of signatures is the whole barrier.

Uncontested rate by office type
Office type	Races	Unopposed	Rate
Park/Cemetery/Library	1,324	1,142	86.3%
Water/Sewer district	1,050	882	84%
Judicial	94	77	81.9%
Fire district	2,533	2,069	81.7%
Other	750	581	77.5%
Hospital district	706	530	75.1%
School district	4,675	3,348	71.6%
Port district	644	424	65.8%
City	5,969	3,408	57.1%
County	227	79	34.8%

Source WA Secretary of State official general election results · as of 2026-08-07 · 10 office types

What this page will not compute

Each of these is a number a reader might reasonably expect. None of them follow from the records we hold, so we do not publish them.

Whether a seat was winnable: We know one candidate filed. We do not know whether anyone considered running and decided against it, so we cannot say a seat was conceded rather than simply uncontested.
Why a seat went unopposed: The result export records the outcome, not the reason. Incumbency, obscurity, an unpaid role and a genuinely satisfied electorate all produce the same row.
A trend from one cycle to the next: Washington runs local elections in odd years and state elections in even ones, so consecutive cycles are not comparable. The by-election table above is grouped for that reason and should be read down the odd years only.
Anything about the reader’s own ballot: This page has no location. County pages cover a whole county, which contains many overlapping districts, and we do not know which of them you vote in.

Definitions

What was counted, so the figure can be checked rather than taken.

Uncontested: Exactly one candidate appeared on the general election ballot for that seat. Write-in lines are not counted as candidates.
Race: One seat on one ballot in one election. A three-seat board contributes three races.
Excluded: Ballot measures, recall questions and advisory votes. None of them have candidates.
Top-two primary: Washington narrows most races to two candidates before the general. A race can be genuinely contested in August and appear uncontested here only if a single person filed at all — not merely because one was eliminated.
Multi-county races: Excluded from county tables, because a race spanning several counties cannot be attributed to one. They are included in the statewide totals.

Reproduce this

The figures come from one table built from the Secretary of State result exports. This is the query behind them.

SELECT election_date, COUNT(*) races, SUM(is_uncontested) unopposed
FROM race_contests
WHERE election_type = 'general'
GROUP BY election_date
ORDER BY election_date DESC;

Source: Washington Secretary of State official general election results, 2014–2025.
Uncontested flag: Set when exactly one candidate row exists for a seat on a general election ballot. Computed at import, not by hand.
Rebuilt: 2026-08-07. Figures change when the state publishes a corrected canvass.

Cite this report

This is public-records reporting. Use it, and say where it came from.

“Most Washington Elections Aren’t Elections,” WashingtonIndependents.org, data as of 2026-08-07, accessed 2026-08-08. https://washingtonindependents.org/uncontested/