The DistrictStories from city halls
An “I Voted” sticker with a small town inside itAn oval “I Voted” sticker, tilted slightly, on a dark navy field printed with faint ballot ovals. Inside the sticker the sun is rising behind a small town: a domed city hall flying a flag at the center, a water tower and a schoolhouse with a bell tower on the left, a streetlight with a small camera and a long, low data center on the right. A red ribbon across the bottom reads “I VOTED” above a row of stars. I VOTED An “I Voted” sticker with a small town inside itAn oval “I Voted” sticker, tilted slightly, on a dark navy field printed with faint ballot ovals. Inside the sticker the sun is rising behind a small town: a domed city hall flying a flag at the center, a water tower and a schoolhouse with a bell tower on the left, a streetlight with a small camera and a long, low data center on the right. A red ribbon across the bottom reads “I VOTED” above a row of stars. I VOTED

Election Day Nov. 3, 2026

All Politics Is Local — Are You Voting?

The people at the bottom of your ballot decide what gets built, what’s in the water and what happens in your kids’ schools. When they’re elected on their own, as few as one in ten voters shows up.

Today is Election Day. You may have heard.

For months, the ads, the mailers and the cable discussions have been about Congress and, in most states, the governor’s race. Your phone may or may not have been buzzing every day with texts encouraging one candidate or the other, from numbers you don’t recognize.

But keep going down your ballot, and you may find the people who really run the place you live: city council, mayor, school board, county commission, the board that runs your water. Ballotpedia, which tracks local races, counted more than 38,000 local elections on November ballots this year, and those are only the ones it covers.

The District spends every week watching what those officials do. So today, we’re taking a break from our usual reporting to make a simple case: finish your ballot.

A resident of Pasco, Washington, reminded his city council of that last December, with the aid of a banjo.

Pasco, Washington · Pasco City Council
City Council regular meeting — December 1, 2025

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My name is David Cohoe. I'm from Pasco. [plays banjo, to the tune of 'She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain'] When the cavities start a-mountin' in this town, when the cavities start a-mountin' in this town, we'll remember how you voted when the kids' teeth are corroded...

Official recording at 39:57
At a Glance
38,000+
local elections on November ballots this year, by Ballotpedia's count
43%
of large U.S. cities hold their elections on the same day as federal ones
1 in 10
of registered voters turn out, at the low end, when cities hold elections on their own
Key Finding
Local races draw the most voters when they share the ballot with federal ones, and many of those races are on the ballot today. The officials they elect decide some of the most contested questions in town.
I

Who shows up

The song’s chorus, “we’ll remember how you voted,” is a promise most local electorates don’t keep, because most of them aren’t showing up. Turnout in local elections is low, and lowest when cities vote on their own. The estimates vary with how they’re measured: 15 to 27 percent of eligible voters, by one national estimate; about a quarter of registered voters on average, according to a researcher quoted by the National Conference of State Legislatures; and in some mayoral and school board races, below 10 percent of adults.

However it’s counted, that’s around one in four at most, and sometimes fewer than one in ten.

You can see the gap in one state. In five Missouri counties, registered voters turned out by the tens of thousands for the 2020 presidential election, and mostly stayed home for the city elections on either side of it.

Same counties, different dayShare of registered voters who turned out, five Missouri counties
Bar chart. In each of five Missouri counties, turnout in the November 2020 general election (69.3% to 84.7% of registered voters) far exceeded turnout in the spring 2020 city election (6.7% to 16.1%) and the April 2021 city election (8.6% to 26.7%). The table below lists every value.0%25%50%75%100%Boone11.9%70.1%13.7%Buchanan13.6%69.3%26.7%Cape Girardeau12.3%73.3%8.6%Greene6.7%84.7%13.3%St. Louis County16.1%79.3%14.4%Bar chart. In each of five Missouri counties, turnout in the November 2020 general election (69.3% to 84.7% of registered voters) far exceeded turnout in the spring 2020 city election (6.7% to 16.1%) and the April 2021 city election (8.6% to 26.7%). The table below lists every value.0%25%50%75%100%Boone11.9%70.1%13.7%Buchanan13.6%69.3%26.7%Cape Girardeau12.3%73.3%8.6%Greene6.7%84.7%13.3%St. Louis County16.1%79.3%14.4%

Source: University of Missouri Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, “The Timing of Missouri Municipal Elections” (Report #01-2022), Table 1. The spring 2020 city election, scheduled for April 7, was held June 2 because of the pandemic. Not every registered voter in a county lived where a city election was held. November 2020 was a presidential election; the brief puts typical Missouri midterm turnout at 30 to 45 percent.

Show the numbers
Registered-voter turnout by county and election
CountySpring 2020 (city)Nov. 2020 (president)April 2021 (city)
Boone11.9%70.1%13.7%
Buchanan13.6%69.3%26.7%
Cape Girardeau12.3%73.3%8.6%
Greene6.7%84.7%13.3%
St. Louis County16.1%79.3%14.4%

Today is different. In 43 percent of 420 large U.S. cities studied by the Sightline Institute, which favors moving local elections to even years, city elections are timed to coincide with federal ones. Research on cities that moved their elections to that ballot finds the move often doubles turnout in local races.

There are tradeoffs; on a long ballot, voters sometimes skip races toward the bottom: smaller offices, judicial seats, ballot initiatives. The drop-off for city council races was modest: a review by Citizens Union found that in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco no more than one in ten voters skipped the ranked-choice council races further down, apart from two uncontested seats. But other races fare worse: in two Missouri counties, about one in five ballots skipped the last judicial race. The University of Missouri brief also lays out a case for keeping city elections separate: merged ballots tend to nationalize local races, would raise the cost of local campaigns, and trade a smaller electorate that seems better informed about local issues for a bigger one drawn by the national races. The decision, it says, “comes down to a choice between values.” Either way, it’s one more reason to look before you go.

If your city or school board is on today’s ballot, finish it. If it isn’t — the majority of large cities vote on some other day, and 24 states require it — find out when your next local election is, because that’s the one most of your neighbors will miss.

II

What's on the line

Local electorates are small. The stakes aren’t. The questions on a council agenda are some of the most contested in public life, and some are settled by a single vote. When a council splits 4–3, who holds each seat decides the outcome, whichever side you’re on.

Data centers. In June, the San Marcos, Texas, City Council voted 4–3 to ban data centers in every zoning district in the city. Mayor Jane Hughson, below, voted no; she wanted to keep the council’s say in case the technology improves. We covered how it happened in No Zoning District, and where the industry is headed next in The Data Center Atlas.

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San Marcos, Texas · San Marcos City Council
City Council Regular Meeting — June 16, 2026

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Hughson explains that a yes vote would prohibit data centers everywhere in the city. She says she wants to preserve council discretion in case the technology improves, then says she will vote no.

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The clerk announces that the amendment passed 4–3 and begins naming the dissenting members. The official city recap supplies the clean roll call because automated transcript recognition garbles the names.

Official recording at 2:53:31Open this transcript on Hamlet

Surveillance cameras. Toledo, Ohio, approved a three-year contract for Flock license-plate cameras last November, then in June voted 8–4 to extend part of the program after residents voiced concerns. Supporters called the cameras a tool police needed; opponents raised privacy concerns. How Toledo got there is in Declaring an Emergency.

Fluoride. Pasco’s council, the one the banjo player was addressing, voted 4–2 last November to stop fluoridating the city’s water, after a city survey found respondents almost evenly split. The whole fight, and where else it’s happening, is in Showing Teeth.

Schools. California told every school district to adopt a student smartphone policy by July 1 of this year, and left it to each school board to decide how far to go, from limits to an outright ban. See Bell to Bell. For what a school board election decides, see Four Boards, Four Rooms.

III

Do your homework

The hardest part of voting in a local race is knowing it’s there. These free, nonpartisan tools will show you what’s on your ballot, whether you’re registered and where to go. Polling hours and mail-ballot deadlines vary by state, so check yours.

Once you know who’s running, find out what your local government has been deciding. Hamlet, which publishes The District, tracks more than 2,400 cities and counties. Its coverage doesn’t reach every town, but these are good places to start digging:

Get the sticker

Every one of those votes — 4–3, 8–4, 4–2 — was cast by people elected to decide exactly these things. In many towns, most registered voters skipped the elections that choose councils like these. If yours are on today’s ballot, you don’t have to skip them. Find your ballot, read the bottom half, and go earn the sticker.

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Methodology

How we reported this

Turnout figures: Each turnout figure is quoted with its own denominator: eligible voters (National Civic League), registered voters (NCSL; the University of Missouri brief) or adults (MIT Election Lab). They describe local elections generally (the Missouri brief, spring city elections held apart from federal ones) and come from research published from 2018 to 2025. The Missouri chart is transcribed from the brief's Table 1 without recalculation. Sightline Institute and Citizens Union both advocate holding local elections alongside federal ones; we use their counts, attributed, and not their policy conclusions.

The 38,000 figure: Ballotpedia's count of municipal elections it is tracking in November 2026, published Oct. 30. It covers all of November, not only Nov. 3, and only the places Ballotpedia covers, so the real number of local races is higher.

The examples: The San Marcos, Toledo, Pasco and California examples come from earlier District reporting; their sources and the two video moments were re-checked for this story. Each links to the full article.

Verified Sources

Sources & Data

All claims in this article are grounded in public records, government data, and independent reporting.