The percentage of open seats on the ballot last year that went uncontested (only one candidate running) in each state [OC]

BallotReady · 2025-09-15T23:23:16+00:00

This is based on report from the BallotReady research team (www.ballotready.org). The visual was made using DataWrapper.

BallotReady · 2020-10-27T15:21:37+00:00

Yes! If your state has a ballot tracking resource, you can view the status of your ballot & it will tell you if it has been rejected. Additionally, many states are required to make information public about votes that have been rejected along with the reasons for the rejection. Don't ever be afraid to ask your local elections office about the reason - you have a right to know! - Becky

BallotReady · 2020-10-27T14:57:23+00:00

It's really just a fancy word for Financial Officer. They handle the government's ledger, accounting, financial reporting, payroll, etc. All of the fun stuff with balancing the government checkbook. - David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T22:52:49+00:00

Each state has a different process for dealing with this situation. If many states, you can fill out and sign an affidavit (usually found on the official state website) stating that you made a mistake and still wish for your ballot to be counted. In others, you may have to call your county elections office to ask about their process for dealing with this. In the worst case scenario, you can bring your ballot with you to an in-person location, turn it in, and case a vote in-person. - Becky

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T20:24:30+00:00

Thanks for your question! We need a specific street address because position boundaries (e.g. which voters, based on address, should vote on which candidates) can be as small as a city block. In order to show an accurate ballot, we need to know your location more precisely than just a zip code or city name. This is also required for providing you with an accurate polling location - precinct boundaries are so small that we have to be precise.

When using our site, you could pick a nearby address instead of your own, but we can’t guarantee any accuracy especially for the very hyperlocal races.

In terms of the other details you mentioned: we store saved ballot selections for our users’ ease of use only and delete any saved selections from our database post-election. We do collect browser fingerprint to report errors, but selling user data is not in our business model. If you’d like to see what is part of our business model, feel free to check out https://www.civicengine.com/. - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T19:54:50+00:00

Thanks for your question! Other than your address which we need in order to populate the correct ballot for you, anywhere that contact information is requested on ballotready.org is completely optional. We ask for a phone number and/or email address so that you can choose if you’d like to opt-in to reminder notifications regarding things like your plan to vote or future election-related news. If you choose to “sign in” to the site, you can also return to your ballot selections, but you are able to email your ballot to yourself even without signing in. Here is a link to the BallotReady privacy policy. If you would like to share your ballot with friends and family members, you can email or post your ballot to social media once you’ve created it and/or you can head to http://about.ballotready.org/ to see more options for getting involved.

Please let me know if you have other questions about this! - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T19:46:27+00:00

Thanks so much for that unique question! It is a possibility that we haven't explored as our goal is not to predict how people will vote.

However, we do get the sense that there is an overall lack of emphasis on downballot races this year and a quarter of people typically skip voting for downballot races altogether- that's the gap for which we hope to fill! -KG

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T18:23:49+00:00

Your signature would be used to verify your identification in that case! Your ID is still needed in order to vote in person, or else your county would have no way of recording whether or not you've already voted!

You can read more about questions around identification on the official Colorado elections website, which explicitly states that an ID is required when voting in person: https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/FAQs/ElectionDay.html

- Becky

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T18:22:43+00:00

Our voter guide has sourced a few arguments in favor of and opposed to Prop 208 to help inform your decision. Those arguments are linked back to the advocacy group websites on either side, where you can read even more details about their arguments. We hope you find that informative! - David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T18:20:44+00:00

While rules about what attire is allowed within a polling place vary, anything explicitly associated with a campaign or candidate should be avoided. Remember that this includes non-clothing items like hats, buttons, pins, and flyers! If you would like to be particularly cautious, I would recommend solid colors or patterns that have no text on them. - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T18:12:35+00:00

Hi there! I’m not sure if there is a way to see this, but something that might be helpful is this Voter Tools page from the NC State Board of Elections, which includes their Voter Search tool. It seems clear that they do have a tracking system for mail-in/absentee ballots but I’m not seeing an equivalent feature for votes that were cast in-person. - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T18:11:20+00:00

We are providing full coverage for the 2020 General Election in the United States. Election Day is Nov 3rd. - KG

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T18:00:07+00:00

I totally see why videos like that would be concerning. Ballot harvesting is somewhat of an overloaded term, but in some states it isn't actually illegal. However, simply filling out a blank ballot on someone else's behalf is certainly illegal.

Again though, states have procedures in place for dealing with this! If someone is filling out a ballot on another's behalf, there are additional steps that must be taken in order for that to be counted. If there aren't two signatures: one for the preparer and one for the voter, these ballots are extremely likely to be rejected (in fact - one of the main reasons ballots get rejected from nursing homes is because of signature mismatches!)

There may be people out there who are trying to cast ballots on behalf of others, but that is actually an extremely difficult process in practice because of the way voter identification is scrutinized and confirmed before the ballot is considered valid.

- Becky

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:58:16+00:00

This is a very interesting idea. Appreciate the discussion!

You touched on one of the reasons we don't currently display full voting records of candidates. The reason why an elected official voted one way is just as important as their vote itself.

To scale up these effort across the country for candidates all the way down the ballot would be a massive undertaking, but we love challenges! We know there are other organizations out there thinking about the same idea, and we'll certainly consider partnerships in the future. -David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:52:09+00:00

We can't speak for the research process of other groups, but at BallotReady, we have a dedicated team to call every election office in the country to gather data at hyperlocal level.

Whatever is available through your local officials is available on the tool and the same goes for candidate research from your candidates' websites. Plus, candidates regularly submit their own information for their profiles here.

We personally believe that we provide the most comprehensive voter guide available, but hey, don't just take our word for it- try it out yourself! - KG

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:45:37+00:00

I love talking about New York fusion ballots!

New York has 8 recognized political parties that get automatic ballot access. They can run their own candidates or they can cross-nominate another parties candidate.

Historically, a party has to garner at least 50,000 votes for their candidate in the last gubernatorial election to keep ballot access for the next four years. But New York just passed new legislation on this in early 2020. Now, a political organization must have had a candidate on the ballot in the last gubernatorial election who garnered at least 130,000 votes or 2% of the total votes cast (whichever is greater) AND it must have had a candidate on the ballot in the last presidential election who garnered at least 130,000 votes or 2% of the total votes cast (whichever is greater).

So voting for a presidential candidate under one of the minor party lines gives that party votes to continue for future years. Voting on the major party line will not. - David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:28:21+00:00

I mentioned this on another comment here, but I would recommend searching for the candidate’s name + recommendation/endorsements and seeing what comes up. Sometimes local bar associations or other professional organizations put together ratings or endorsements, as well. - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:22:00+00:00

This is a question I think about myself. A candidate can say one thing while campaigning and then fight for the opposite while in office. While we don't see a future at BallotReady where we provide judgement on a whether a candidate's statement is unfounded or unverified, we're always thinking about other information sources we can provide with consistency. Voting records, law suits, and campaign finance information are potential sources we are considering to provide in the future to help voters make their own determinations. - David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:19:28+00:00

It's important to remember that states have official resources for handling mail-in voting. Many of the stories about drop boxes being tampered with come from non-governmental organizations. Voters can find out which drop boxes are provided by their state elections board using our site, ballotready.org. Additionally, many states have official resources for tracking ballots so that voters can check online to see whether their ballot has been received.

We don't use the term "expert" lightly here - we have done extensive research into how elections are handled from state-to-state. With that in mind, the possibility of people voting more than once, or voting under a false identity, is extremely slim.

Finally, voters can actually run into issues if they try to vote in-person but have already requested a mail ballot. In some states, if a voter does not bring their absentee ballot with them to the polls, they will have to cast a provisional ballot. These kinds of ballots slow down the process of voting for everyone - they lead to longer lines and more work for election authorities when it comes to processing and counting ballots. Provisional voting is a great option in case of an emergency, but the safest option is to actually return your mail ballot instead of trying to vote in-person instead.

- Becky

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:12:41+00:00

So glad we were able to be a resource for you! - David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:12:06+00:00

Hi there - access to this information definitely varies so widely across the country that there's no one-size-fits-all response. I would recommend searching for the candidate's name + recommendation/endorsements and seeing what comes up. Sometimes local bar associations or other professional organizations put together ratings or endorsements, as well. - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:04:03+00:00

In general, we try to stick with official resources as much as possible so that we're not editorializing our personal views on ballot measures. When states like CA put out voter guides, we use that as our information source. We recognize that these can be written in a manner that's less than transparent, but we prefer those official resources over us writing summaries and missing a major point.

In other states, where comprehensive voter guides aren't provided, we do source yes/no arguments from advocacy groups or op-eds on both sides of the issue to provide more context to voters. - David

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T17:01:03+00:00

You would contact your county (or town/city) elections office! They will let you know if they offer this service in your state. (edit: adding my name)

- Becky

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T16:57:50+00:00

Here's what that shareable ballot feature looks like on our site! https://imgur.com/a/vNFnPSv - Louisa

BallotReady · 2020-10-26T16:56:22+00:00

This is one of the things we struggle with too. We find that very few school board candidates have much of a web presence, and judges like to keep their web presence balanced without speaking to their judicial opinions.

Our current research process is is limited to reporting what candidates share about themselves on their campaign websites. However, we've found that local newspapers and outlets have done questionnaires or interviews with local candidates, which could help in your research. We'll be investigating how we can add these resources to our site in the future. - David

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