By law, political subdivisions like special and school districts have officers chosen by election, with some exceptions. For example, the board of trustees for cemetery districts are appointed by the board of supervisors. Or when a vacancy occurs, there are various steps that must be taken to fill those empty seats, which are sometimes by appointment. But for the most part, those who serve as board members, directors, or council members must be elected to their offices.

Every two years, our municipalities, school districts, and special districts have general elections. Most of them are held in November, with the exception of the City of Nevada City, which has its general election in the primaries cycle. But ballot access for these offices is fairly straightforward–if you live in the municipality, then you may qualify to be a candidate. Only voters who live in the municipality can vote for those candidates.

Some districts have different rules for ballot access. The majority of our districts conduct at-large elections–meaning, if you live in the district, then you can run for a seat and all voters in the district will have a chance to vote for you. Some other districts require candidates to live in a particular area of the district, and only those voters who live in the same area may vote for those candidates. But some districts might even require a candidate to live in a particular area of the district but then allow all voters of the district to vote for them. It is a lot to keep track of for any district secretary and certainly for our office.

In Nevada County there are 13 school districts and 24 special districts. Several of these districts are shared with other counties. Did you know, for example, that the Nevada County Board of Education serves both Nevada and Yuba counties? Also, the school and special districts in the Truckee area have voters in both Nevada and Placer counties. These districts, more often than not, request elections services from all affected counties via a board resolution.

If a municipality requests to consolidate their election with a regularly scheduled election, then we will gladly print the general election contest on a county administered ballot. In that case, the city or town clerk has the responsibility to conduct candidate filing and to share information with our office so that we may print the contest on the ballot and tabulate the results. If a special or school district requests elections services, then our office will take care of everything from candidate filing to printing the contest on the ballot to tabulation. While it’s possible for any political subdivision to conduct its own elections, they’ll more often than not come to us given the expense and legal requirements needed to administer an election. 

So what this means is that our staff in Nevada County must make sure that we communicate regularly with our partner counties, who may or may not have candidate filing obligations connected with the overlaps in districts. If a district that contains more than one county has members who are elected by voters of the entire district, we must let the other county know that a Nevada County candidate will appear on the other county’s ballot (and vice versa). If a candidate is required to file in another county, then that county must let us know that there is a candidate that we must include on our ballots. The same holds true for local ballot measures–if the district requests to place a ballot measure on a ballot, then all affected counties must print the measure on their ballots. 

If this sounds like a lot of things to keep track of–it is! But it’s work we’re always happy to do, so that voters can exercise their right to vote for all eligible contests.