There are three essential components to a healthy democracy: elected officials, voters, and political opposition. The first two are the ones that make the most noise and get the most attention.
But that third pillar is also really important.
According to Ballotpedia, the nonpartisan online organization that tracks election data, of the nearly 14,000 elections in 30 states the group covered this week, 60% were uncontested: There was only one candidate for an office, or for some roles, no candidate.
Much of the post-election analysis this week has focused on the New York City mayoral race and Zohran Mamdani's victory. However, that same night, when democracy in the United States took center stage, more than 1,000 people were elected mayor without facing an opponent.
Only about 700 mayoral races tracked by Ballotpedia gave voters any choice. Dig a little deeper and you'll find that more than 50% of city council victories and nearly 80% of local judiciary results came without contests.
That's a problem.
Elections without political opposition turn voting, the cornerstone of our governance, into performance art. The trend is going in the wrong direction. Since Ballotpedia began tracking this data in 2018, about 65% of covered elections were uncontested. However, over the last two years the average is an abysmal 75%.
It's a symptom of a broader disconnect. For two and a half centuries, many lives have been sacrificed trying to perfect this union and its democracy. And yet, last November, a third of eligible U.S. voters opted out.
Are we a healthy democracy or are we disguising ourselves as such?
Doug Kronaizl, Ballotpedia's editor-in-chief who analyzes this data, told me that the numbers show that Americans are increasingly focused on national politics, even though local elections have the greatest effects on our daily lives.
“We like to look at elections as kind of a pyramid, and at the top, that's where you find all the elections that people spend a lot of time focused on,” said Kronaizl, who has worked at the nonprofit since 2020. “Those are U.S. House elections, gubernatorial elections, things like that. But the vast majority of the pyramid, that huge base, is like all these local elections that always happen and end up being mostly uncontested.”
Take New York for example. Despite all the hype surrounding Mamdani's victory, the fact is that most of the state's 124 elections were uncontested. Iowa had 1,753 races with one or zero candidates; Ohio had more than 2,500.
And that is being conservative. In some cases, if an election is not contested, the ballots are not printed and the artwork is cancelled. Ballotpedia says its data does not include results decided without a vote.
We have elected officials. We have voters. But the political opposition? We are in trouble, especially at the local level, at the base of the pyramid. The foundations of democracy desperately need to be repaired.
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Former Tempe, Arizona Mayor Neil Giuliano has dedicated most of his life to public service. He said when it comes to running for office, people need to remember the three M's: the money to campaign, the electoral math to win and the message to voters.
“Before it was the other way around,” he told me. “Before you had a message and you spoke about what you believed.” Now, however, “you can talk all day about what you believe,” he said, but if you don't have the money and data to target and reach voters, “it's a vain or futile effort.”
When an interesting electoral seat opens up in Arizona, Giuliano – who was elected to the city council in 1990 before serving as mayor from 1994 to 2004 – is sometimes approached by the possibility of running again. For two decades now, their answer has been the same: No, thank you.
Instead, the 69-year-old prefers to advise candidates and raise funds. He also serves on the board of directors of the Victory Fund, the 30-year-old nonpartisan organization that works to elect openly LGBTQ+ candidates at all levels of government.
Giuliano said the rise in unopposed elections can be explained by two disheartened groups: Some people don't run because they believe the positions don't matter. Others are “so overwhelmed with everything that's going on that they're not going to alter their lives,” he said. “It's challenging enough without getting into a public fight where people hate each other, where people need security, where people are harassed verbally and on social media.”
Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Something, echoed that sentiment. His nonprofit recruits and supports young progressives to run for local and state offices. Since President Trump was elected last November, Litman said, the organization has received more than 200,000 inquiries from people looking to run for office, which could indicate some hope on the horizon.
“I think the problems have become so big and so deep that it seems like you have to do something, you have to run,” he said. “The number one issue we hear people talking about is housing. In recent years, the market has become so difficult, especially for young people, that it seems there is no alternative but to participate.”
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Indeed, these are the times that test men's souls, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Paine. He wrote those words in “The American Crisis” less than two years after the Revolutionary War, when morale was low and the future of democracy seemed bleak. George Washington is said to have had Paine's words read aloud to soldiers to inspire them. And when the bloodshed ended and victory was finally won, the founders wrote the first article of the Bill of Rights because they knew the paramount importance of political opposition. That's what the First Amendment primarily protects: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government.
Today, the crisis is not a foreign tyranny, but a lack of civic engagement.
And look, I get it.
Whether you watch Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC, it usually seems like no one in politics cares about you or your community's issues. We would have a different impression if we listened to local candidates. Thousands of local elections are held every year, hungry for attention and resources, right at the base of the pyramid. Since the 20th century, when national media and campaign finance exploded, we have been drawn to look only at the top.
One of the reasons why political opposition in local elections is fundamental to democracy is that it teaches us to get along despite our differences. The president will never meet with most of the people who didn't vote for them, but a local school board member might. Those conversations will affect the way the official thinks, speaks, campaigns and governs. When the system works, politicians are held accountable and are replaced if they are out of step with voters. That is a healthy democracy, and it is only possible if all three elements are present: elected officials, voters and political opposition.
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Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has dedicated most of his life to public service. He said he learned early to care about his community because he grew up during the civil rights movement, “when they sent dogs to attack human beings.”
Today, the 72-year-old is running for governor of California in 2026. He told me that when it comes to the rise of uncontested elections, people have to remember that “democracy is a living, breathing thing.”
“Not everyone can run for office, not everyone wants to run for office, but everyone needs to be civically engaged,” he said. “We have the obligation and duty to participate, read about what is happening to understand and yes, sometimes, run when necessary.
“We have to address the threat to our democracy, but we also have to fix the things we broke… and there are a lot of things broken.”
Voters often want something better than the status quo, but without political opposition on the ballot, that can't happen. That's the beauty of democracy: It helps when elected officials forget that the government should serve the people, not the other way around.
Leanna Hubers contributed to this report. YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow
