50%+ of the 2015 Virginia legislative elections have only one candidate on the ballot for November

[Statistikhengst]

The Old Dominion does its legislative elections in so-called "off" years, so we can often expect that not every race will have two candidates. But this is ridiculous:

Ballot Access News - Over Half of Virginia Legislative Races in November 2015 Have Only One Candidate on Ballot

For the 100 House races, only one person is on the ballot in 63 districts. For the State Senate, only one person is on the ballot in 15 of the 40 races.

The current partisan balance of Virginian politics:

Virginia General Assembly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Virginia House of Delegates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

House of Delegates (lower house): 67 R / 32 D, one seat vacant (was I)

Senate of Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Senate of Virginia (upper House): 21 R / D 19

Government of Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Executive: Governor (D), Lt. Governor (D), AG (D)


So, Virginia has a split government very similar to our national Government and in roughly the same proportions. As a matter of fact, in 2012, Obama won Virginia by +3.87 and he won nationally be +3.86 - two statistics that are nearly identical to each other. If you calculate the seat percentages for the Virginia Senate, it's 53% R / 47% D. Nationally, in the US Senate, it's 54% R / 46% D (including two D-leaning Is).

Now, some of these state seats may or may not have been competitive for a long time, but when you consider that taxpayer money pays for elections, 78 of those 140 races are meaningless, since there will be no challenger.

That is a travesty and man, oh, man, that is some real apathy. This is not what Democracy is supposed to be about.

Thanks to Richard Winger of BALLET ACCESS NEWS for bringing attention to this story.


More information here:

Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2015 - Ballotpedia

Virginia State Senate elections, 2015 - Ballotpedia