Michigan Faces 478 Vacant Local Election Races
Nearly 10% of Michigan's local ballot positions lack candidates for the November 3 election, driven by low pay and declining civic volunteerism.
At least 478 local elected races in Michigan have no candidates or too few candidates for the November 3 election. This shortage affects nearly one-in-ten of the state's 5,400 local ballot positions, with school board posts accounting for nearly one-third of the vacancies. Rural communities are the most heavily impacted, particularly regarding village, library, and school boards.
Stephanie Leiser, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, led a survey finding that three out of four townships and villages struggle to fill mandatory elected positions. Local officials attribute the crisis to a combination of low pay and increased workloads resulting from constitutional changes in voting mandates. Bridgehampton Township Supervisor Leo Sonck noted that these mandates have led to heavy turnover among veteran clerks.
Other officials point to a broader societal decline in trust and civic engagement. Michael Siegrist, president of the Michigan Municipal Clerk Association, linked the shortage to a general drop in volunteerism. While city and village boards can appoint individuals to fill gaps after the election, several legislative proposals in Lansing to provide financial support and flexible hiring rules for treasurers and clerks remain idle. This trend mirrors a national crisis, with one study identifying 10,000 candidate-less seats across the United States in 2024.
