America needs more politicians

Editor’s note: This article appears in GovernanceHis autumn 2024 magazine, which appears on October 1. You can subscribe Here.

If you’re familiar with American elections, you know about one key issue: low voter turnout. In general, from municipal elections to big presidential years, many Americans simply don’t take part in the process.

Consider just a few examples. In New York’s 2021 election to elect a new mayor and city council, only 18% of New Yorkers went to the polls. In Chicago, in 2023, it was just 35 percent. The 2022 midterms set a modern record for voter turnout, but still, 50 percent of Americans stayed home.

Turns out voters aren’t the only ones not showing up. Our research finds that our democracy also suffers from an extreme lack of candidates.

Our analysis of the last four general elections (November 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023) found that nearly 70 percent of ballot positions went uncontested. For a long list of important government functions –
state legislator, city councilman, judge, sheriff, tax assessor and more – only one certified candidate was on the ballot, usually the incumbent. In other words, most of the American government is not elected by voters, but rather elected by default.

The same was true in the last batch of primaries this spring. While both parties failed to win most seats this primary cycle, the issue was significantly worse for Democrats, with nearly 75 percent of the primaries uncontested, including hundreds of congressional seats.

This is not trivial. For much of our government, incumbents are safely re-elected cycle after cycle, knowing they won’t need to campaign or be accountable to voters.

After several cycles of uncompetitive races, voters are rightfully disengaged and out of touch with their local officials. While the magnitude of the problem is new to many, most Americans have experienced the lack of candidates firsthand. At polling booths across the country, bewildered voters must wade through page after page of positions with only one candidate available. Most voters stop voting for these positions altogether. Can you blame him?

At BallotReady, we’re passionate about reducing the lack of information so voters can stay connected with their local government and informed before they vote in local elections. We believe that by informing voters about when, where and how to vote in each election, we can significantly increase voter turnout.

But based on our own research, we recognize that this is only part of the problem. America needs more candidates. Voters must have something to vote for. That’s why we’re working on new tools to not only show voters their ballots, but also give them opportunities to see where they can run, down to the local level.

Our hope is that more people will leave the voting booth this fall excited to nominate someone or appear on another ballot soon.

America needs a candidate revolution. It begins not only by promoting voter turnout, but also by addressing the issue of candidate turnout.

GovernanceHis opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily his own Governanceits editors or management.
Alex Niemczewski is the CEO and Kunal Goel the development lead of BallotReady.