Across Virginia, at least eight school board races don’t have a candidate for the upcoming November 4th elections. That means the winners could come down to write-ins — people whose names aren’t actually printed on the ballot.
Franklin County School Board Chair, Dawn McCray, wasn’t planning to run again this year, until no one else filed for her Boone district seat.
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“I think it is a challenge to get people to get on the ballot,” McCray told 10 News. “They see the time commitment that’s involved, they see the political rhetoric that’s going on, and they see who’s showing up at school board meetings and yelling at you.”
Karin Kitchens, a Political Science Associate Professor at Virginia Tech, told 10 News low pay and growing political tension around local education have discouraged many potential candidates.
“We found that 72% of those that responded to our survey said that the job is now more stressful in this post-pandemic world,” Kitchens said. “And that related to both increased job demands as well as a lot of additional involvement from citizens in the process with varying opinions.”
Statewide, Franklin County isn’t alone. Other counties like Appomattox, Bland, and Wythe also have no candidates in school board races.
In Wythe County, one of three school board seats on the ballot this year has no candidates. In a statement to 10 News, Wythe County Registrar, Lennon Counts, said that while some candidates in past years have filed but failed to collect the required 125 signatures, for the Lead Mines school board district this year, they “don’t have a candidate. No one filed prior to the deadline.”
Appomattox’s Courthouse school board district also does not have any candidates. County Registrar, Patricia Morton, also in a statement to 10 News said there could be several reasons for fewer candidates, including voters not realizing there’s an opening, hesitation to run against an incumbent, or hesitancy to ask voters for petition signatures, especially in what she called “a climate of polarization and lack of civil discourse in politics.”
Kitchens says smaller localities often end up relying on write-in winners, but that comes with its own challenges.
“Are they going to be willing to meet with constituents? Are they going to be willing to put in the effort to understand budgets?” Kitchens said. “You might expect that to not go as well as someone that is really running a campaign.”
Although it was not in her original plans, McCray says she’ll move forward as a write-in candidate for Franklin County but still hopes others will step up before November 4th.
“I’ve gone to speak to agencies to try to encourage folks to come out,” McCray said. “But at the end of the day, my heart’s with public education and I want to see that their best interests are served.”
8 School Board Races/Districts in Virginia Without Any Candidates for the November 4th Elections:
- Franklin County: Boone District
- Appomattox County: Courthouse District
- Wythe County: Lead Mines District
- Bland County: Rocky Gap (District 4)
- Greene County: Midway District and Stanardsville District
- Page County: West Bluray (District 101)
- Lunenburg County: Beavers Creek (District 3)