I have a strange question that I am trying to answer. How many elections are there in the USA. What I’m looking for is pretty much any elected position from President to Dog Catcher. I am hoping that I am not the only person to ask this but hey, who knows. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Wade Eyre
There are elections every two years. Not counting special elections when the need be.
As for the count?
1000’s. Or at least 100’s.
Which level of Government are you talking about? Federal, state, or local? And for which state? Each state decides which offices are elected or appointed (although things like Governors of course are always elected).
Broadly speaking, general elections are held every year on the first Tuesday in November. Odd-numbered years are for local elections, even-numbered for federal (AND some local). There’s often primaries leading up to these elections–in NY state, it’s March for presidential primaries and September for local ones. Then there’s special elections in case somebody dies or resigns or moves up…
It’s confusing. Can you narrow it down?
Do local budget elections count? There are an insane number of them around here, what with the budgets always being voted down two or three times. And that’s in every single small town, and not on the same days, either.
My impression is that he’s asking how many elected positions are filled by vote of the people in a given year. And that number is going to be phenomenal.
Remember that in some areas there are no elections on odd-numbered years, and in others the number of people elected is variable from year to year (there are no Federal-government candidates in odd-numbered years, and in most states the State officials are elected on even-numbered years.
Aggregated to cover term lengths, in some given year people somewhere in the country will be voting for:
Federal:
I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess what the total number of elected officials is, but it’s got to be upwards of 10,000 people based on the above.
I think you’re off by a couple of orders of magnitude on the number of office holders. I’ve seen estimates of 1,000,000. Given that every little hamlet has multiple positions, along with all the larger overlapping bodies, that number doesn’t sound outrageous to me.
However, that’s not the number of elections. It’s usual to vote on a number of positions at one election, so that number would be far smaller. And since offices have terms from 1 to a dozen or more years (for some judgeships) another factor has to be laid in.
WAG, around 100,000 elections a year.
But aren’t Senate elections staggered? I thought that only 33% of the Senate was up for re-election on any given election cycle.
Georgia has 159 counties. This is defined in the state constitution. There is (was?) a movement afoot to re-create Milton county in North Atlanta, which was absorbed into Fulton county during the Depression. It’s funny how when they needed the City of Atlanta’s money back in the 1930’s they were all about selling out, but now that (what used to be Milton county) is arguably one of the richest zip codes in Georgia the residents there don’t want to give Atlanta any of their money. Anyway, this will probably never happen, as this would require some other county to dissolve and join another.
“This semi-OT factoid was brought to you by Gateway… and Pepsi!”
BTW, the SD message boards have been unable to find any evidence of an elected “dog catcher” position, despite popular references.
Not all states have Lt Governors. Oregon does not. If I remember, the Sec of State assumes the office of Governor if that office becomes vacant or whatever.
One somewhat unusual thing about Oregon elections is that the Governor is elected in off-year elections (I forget if it’s a year before or a year after presidential elections). But all the other state-wide offices are elected in presidential years.
Perhaps the OP should give us a little better idea of what he/she wants?
Also, should we be answering this under the asumption that he/she is not a US citizen?
There’s another meaning to the question: How often are elections held in the US?
Federally, electons are held every two years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (i.e., on a Tuesday between November 2nd and November 8th). In each federal election, all the members of the House of Representives and on third of the Senators are up for election. In each second federal election, the President and Vice-President are elected.
At the state, county and local level, most elections are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Every year, some elections are held somewhere, though more do happen in years when there are federal elections. Elections are held for legislators, judges, and members of the executive branch (from State Governors down) – and the picture varies from state to state, and often within states as well.
In addition, elections are often held in between these election days in some states. A Tuesday in May seems popular, perhaps because it’s half way between the November election days.
At the state, county and local level, it is very common to have referenda held at the same time as elections, on all sorts of topics, from amendments to state constitutions, to approving loans or sales taxes for local projects.
All levels also have primaries, conducted by government officials, with registered members of political parties voting to choose the parties’ candidates for election in the forthcoming elections. The best known of these are the primaries for candadates for President of the US, but they are held for all kinds of elective office, again varying from state to state. By their nature, these are held at varying times before the day for the real election.
It might be interesting to turn this thread into a reportage of what positions your jurisdiction elects – the size of your state legislator, what executive branch positions in your state are elective, the standard size for county and municipal legislative boards, what else gets elected in your county and city/town/village, etc., with people reporting what’s true for their state and municipal governments.
However, I go along with Bosda in hoping Ward comes back and clarifies his question, before we go haring off into that kind of research compilation.
:o
My favorite is New Hampshire municipalities electing a Hog Reeve, who’s in charge of rounding up stray livestock. Candidacy is traditionally open only to men who became married that year and are presumably in good shape.
In my town, we elect local officeholders in odd-numbered years, so the issues don’t get drowned by state and national stuff. That’s 5 Selectmen, 5 Town Meeting members per precinct, 5 School Committee members, 3 Council on Aging members, 3 Housing Authority members, and the occasional tax referendum.
Let’s assume that the OP is asking how many people there are in the United States at any given time who hold an elected office. We should probably also make the assumption that we’re only counting government posts and not people that are elected president of the student council or the local Elks club.
That said, I don’t even want to think about the amount of research that would be necessary to give even an approximate answer.
Some states elect their state Supreme Court justices. There are also some lesser judge positions on the ballot at the state and/or local level. My state (Michigan) elects trustees and/or regents for three universities plus a state Board of Education. And there are generally a multitude of referenda at the state and/or local level. I never heard of a dogcatcher election, that’s just a figure of speech.
A previous thread on Do any cities actually have an elected dog catcher?. BTW, the one link in that thread was to a humor article. Otherwise no one even produced a cite for an elected animal control officer, although according to astro a few are elected.
And to followup my previous post, the governor of Oregon is elected the year before the presidential elections. I’ve never asked why this is, anyone know?
A few states just like to have their elections in off years. Virginia has its gubernatorial race the year AFTER the presidential election. (And you can’t be reelected.)
Throughout history, the terms and dates of elections for governor have changed a lot. In the early years of the U.S., 1-year or 2-year terms were standard for governors. I believe Vermont is the only state left where the governor is elected for 2 years.
Bill Clinton’s first term as governor of Arkansas was for two years (1978-80). After he regained the office in 1982, the term was changed to four years.
As for Oregon, it looks like the first governor was elected in 1858, but he didn’t take office until 1859. And the term has always been four years. So it looks like the Oregonians got on a schedule back in 1859 and have stuck to it.
However, the election for governor is held TWO years before the presidential election.
You’re right, my memory of when I last voted for Gov was wrong. However, it’s still unusual in that all the other state offices (Attorney General, Sec of State, etc), are elected in presidential years, while the Gov is not.