City elections in the United States are usually nonpartisan, meaning the ballot lists each candidate’s name without any political party next to it. Over three-quarters of all municipalities run their elections this way, and nearly 80 percent of city council races carry no party label.1National League of Cities. Cities 101 — Partisan and Non-Partisan Elections A minority of cities still hold partisan elections, where the ballot shows each candidate’s party the same way a congressional race would. Which system you’ll see depends on your city’s charter and, in some states, state law.
How Common Is Each Format
Nonpartisan ballots dominate at the local level. About 80 percent of city council seats nationwide are designated nonpartisan, and roughly 90 percent of school board seats carry no party label.2BallotReady. Are City Elections Partisan or Nonpartisan? Big-city mayoral races follow the same pattern. Of the 30 largest or most prominent cities holding mayoral elections in 2026, 29 use nonpartisan ballots.3Ballotpedia. Partisanship in United States Municipal Elections (2026)
Partisan city elections still exist, but they tend to cluster regionally rather than spread evenly. Cities in parts of the Northeast and some areas of the South are more likely to print party affiliations on local ballots. Everywhere else, the long trend has been to drop them.
What Each Ballot Looks Like
In a partisan city election, every candidate’s party appears on the ballot next to their name, just as it would in a federal race.4Ballotpedia. Partisan Elections Parties formally nominate candidates, usually through a primary open only to their registered members, and the primary winners meet in the general election.
In a nonpartisan election, the ballot lists each candidate’s name and nothing else about party.5Ballotpedia. Nonpartisan Elections There is no party primary. All candidates compete in a single open contest that every registered voter can participate in, regardless of party registration. If one candidate wins a majority outright, they take the seat. If not, the top two finishers typically advance to a runoff. Some cities skip the runoff and award the seat to whoever gets the most votes in the single round.
Why Most Cities Use Nonpartisan Ballots
The nonpartisan model dates to the Progressive Era of the early 1900s, when reformers pushed to break the grip of party machines on city halls. The argument was that garbage collection, road paving, and fire protection had little to do with national party ideology, and that party labels on local ballots mainly helped the machines. Cities across the country rewrote their charters to strip party labels off the ballot, often alongside adopting the council-manager form of government.1National League of Cities. Cities 101 — Partisan and Non-Partisan Elections
Nonpartisan Does Not Mean Party-Free
This is where the label misleads people. Taking party off the ballot does not take parties out of the process. In many nonpartisan cities, political parties still endorse candidates, donate to campaigns, and mobilize volunteers on election day. Candidates themselves often have well-known party affiliations that journalists and interest groups track closely. Ballotpedia, for example, identifies the partisan leanings of officeholders in nonpartisan cities using candidates’ own statements, their previous runs for partisan office, and media reporting.3Ballotpedia. Partisanship in United States Municipal Elections (2026)
What the nonpartisan format changes is what’s printed next to the name. Voters who want party information have to look it up on their own rather than reading it off the ballot. Politically engaged voters usually already know which candidates align with which party. The voters most affected by the missing label are lower-information voters who would have used party as their main decision-making shortcut.
How To Check What Your City Uses
The fastest way to answer the question for your own city is to look at a recent sample ballot. Your city clerk’s office is the most reliable source. The clerk typically administers municipal elections and posts sample ballots, candidate filing lists, and election calendars on the city website. If the sample ballot shows party labels next to candidates’ names, your city runs partisan elections. If names appear alone, elections are nonpartisan.
If the city clerk’s site doesn’t make it clear, your county elections office or county auditor handles the same information. You can also look your city up on Ballotpedia, which tracks the partisan or nonpartisan status of thousands of local jurisdictions.3Ballotpedia. Partisanship in United States Municipal Elections (2026)
One boundary worth knowing: even if your city elections are nonpartisan, races on the same ballot for county, state, and federal offices generally are not. It’s normal to see a ballot where the mayoral and council contests have no party labels and the offices further down do.