Report · Franklin County

Unopposed Elections in Franklin County, WA

29 of the 38 races on the November 2025 general election ballot in Franklin County had exactly one candidate — 76.3% were decided before anyone voted.

76.3%

of races in Franklin County had no opponent on the 2025 ballot — 29 of 38

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, November 2025 · as of 2026-08-07

01

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
Fire district 6 6 100%
Port district 4 4 100%
Park/Cemetery/Library 2 2 100%
Water/Sewer district 2 2 100%
Hospital district 1 1 100%
School district 8 6 75%
City 15 8 53.3%

Source WA Secretary of State official general election results · as of 2026-08-07 · 7 office types

02

The seats that went unopposed

Every one of these was decided by a single person filing. The full list is here rather than a sample, so a specific office can be looked up instead of inferred from a rate.

Seats elected unopposed in Franklin County, November 2025
Seat Type Elected unopposed Votes
City Of Kahlotus Councilmember, At Large, Position 2 City Jonathan Seibert 32
City Of Kahlotus Councilmember, At Large, Position 3 City Perrie Robitaille 27
City Of Kahlotus Councilmember, At Large, Position 4 City Aaron Wells 31
City Of Mesa Councilmember, At Large, Position 2 City Wyatt Harrington 25
City Of Mesa Councilmember, At Large, Position 4 City Jay Dillard 25
City Of Mesa Councilmember, At Large, Position 5 City Maria G. Chiprez 26
City Of Pasco District 1 Councilmember, District 1, Position 1 City Mark Anthony Figueroa 623
City Of Pasco District 4 Councilmember, District 4, Position 4 City Pete Serrano 1,135
Franklin County Fire Protection District No. 1 Commissioner, At Large, Position 3 Fire district Matthew Smith 238
Franklin County Fire Protection District No. 2 Commissioner, At Large, Position 3 Fire district Todd Van Hollebeke 44
Franklin County Fire Protection District No. 2 Commissioner, At Large, Position 4 Fire district Joe Roach 45
Franklin County Fire Protection District No. 2 Commissioner, At Large, Position 5 Fire district Travis Matthews 45
Franklin County Fire Protection District No. 3 Commissioner, At Large, Position 2 Fire district Gary W. Larsen 1,061
Franklin County Fire Protection District No. 4 Commissioner, At Large, Position 3 Fire district Kim A. Pauley 216
Hospital District 1 Commissioner, District 2, Position 2 Hospital district Lori Hayles 1,085
Cemetery District 1 Commissioner, At Large, Position 1 Park/Cemetery/Library Connie Smith 75
Cemetery District 2 Commissioner, At Large, Position 3 Park/Cemetery/Library Marcellene E. Hueter 544
Port Of Kahlotus Commissioner, District 1 Port district Richard E Halverson 85
Port Of Kahlotus Commissioner, District 2 Port district Josiah Vanhollebeke 89
Port Of Pasco Commissioner, District 2 Port district Matt Watkins 9,070
Port Of Pasco Commissioner, District 3 Port district Hans-joachim Engelke 8,830
Kahlotus School District No. 56 Director, At Large, Position 5 School district Don Savelesky 69
Kahlotus School District No. 56 Director, District 2, Position 2 School district Chance Trainer 70
Kahlotus School District No. 56 Director, District 3, Position 3 School district Kelly J. Cochrane 72
Pasco School District No. 1, Director District 4 Pasco School District, Director District 4 School district Heather Kubalek 2,592
Star School District No. 54 Director, At Large, Position 4 School district Richard Wiswall 17
Star School District No. 54 Director, At Large, Position 5 School district Nolan Van Hollebeke 17
Basin City Water-sewer District Commissioner, At Large, Position 1 Water/Sewer district Robert Andrews 37
Basin City Water-sewer District Commissioner, At Large, Position 2 Water/Sewer district Matthew Naef 40

Source WA Secretary of State official general election results, November 2025 · as of 2026-08-07 · winner named for 29 of 29 seats

03

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.

04

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.

05

Reproduce this

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

SELECT COUNT(*) races, SUM(is_uncontested) unopposed
FROM race_contests
WHERE election_type = 'general'
  AND election_date = '20251104'
  AND counties = 'Franklin';
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.

“Unopposed Elections in Franklin County, WA,” WashingtonIndependents.org, data as of 2026-08-07, accessed 2026-08-08. https://washingtonindependents.org/uncontested/franklin/