Report · Jefferson County

Unopposed Elections in Jefferson County, WA

25 of the 32 races on the November 2025 general election ballot in Jefferson County had exactly one candidate — 78.1% were decided before anyone voted.

78.1%

of races in Jefferson County had no opponent on the 2025 ballot — 25 of 32

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
Park/Cemetery/Library 4 4 100%
Water/Sewer district 3 3 100%
Other 1 1 100%
School district 10 8 80%
Fire district 6 4 66.7%
Hospital district 3 2 66.7%
Port district 5 3 60%

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 Jefferson County, November 2025
Seat Type Elected unopposed Votes
Brinnon Fire District No. 4 Commissioner, Position 1 Fire district Dan Ventura 437
Brinnon Fire District No. 4 Commissioner, Position 3 Fire district Justin Matheson 399
Discovery Bay Fire District No. 5 Commissioner, Position 3 Fire district Barb Knoepfle 146
East Jefferson Fire District No. 1 Commissioner District 1 Fire district Jeannie Price 9,029
East Jefferson County Hospital District No. 2 Commissioner, Position 5 Hospital district Patty Rhoden 10,284
West (Forks) Jefferson County Hospital Dist. No. 1 Commissioner, Position 2 Hospital district Brian Hoctor 33
Jefferson Sheriff Other Andy Pernsteiner 11,880
Brinnon Cemetery District No. 1 Commissioner, Position 2 Park/Cemetery/Library Alicia Simmons 408
Coyle-thorndyke Park And Recreation Dist. No. 1 Commissioner, Position 2 Park/Cemetery/Library Dennis Schmitt 212
Coyle-thorndyke Park And Recreation Dist. No. 1 Commissioner, Position 3 Park/Cemetery/Library Thane Grooms 224
Quilcene Cemetery District No. 2 Commissioner, Position 3 Park/Cemetery/Library Michael Spears 604
City Of Port Townsend Council Member, Position 2 Port district Neil Nelson 3,215
City Of Port Townsend Council Member, Position 5 Port district Elizabeth &Quot;Libby&Quot; Wennstrom 3,282
Port Of Port Townsend Commissioner, District 3 Port district Peter W. Hanke 9,838
Brinnon School District No. 46 Director At Large Position 1 School district Mary Fickett 345
Brinnon School District No. 46 Director At Large Position 2 School district Mike Reynolds 397
Brinnon School District No. 46 Director At Large Position 5 School district Summer Ventura 413
Chimacum School District No. 49 Director District 1 School district Roxanne Hudson 3,255
Chimacum School District No. 49 Director District 2 School district Alyssa Haddenham 3,626
Chimacum School District No. 49 Director District 5 School district Kathryn Lamka 3,641
Port Townsend School District No. 50 Director District 1 School district John Nowak 5,686
Quilcene School District No. 48 Director At Large Position 5 School district Richard Fitzgerald 552
Brinnon Water District No. 2 Commissioner, Position 1 Water/Sewer district Fred Stern 3
Brinnon Water District No. 2 Commissioner, Position 2 Water/Sewer district Bradford J. Schurman 3
Paradise Bay Water District No. 1 Commissioner, Position 2 Water/Sewer district Jeff Blakley 50

Source WA Secretary of State official general election results, November 2025 · as of 2026-08-07 · winner named for 25 of 25 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 = 'Jefferson';
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 Jefferson County, WA,” WashingtonIndependents.org, data as of 2026-08-07, accessed 2026-08-08. https://washingtonindependents.org/uncontested/jefferson/