Research · No. 2 · A fifty-state census · 2026-11-10
Most School Boards Are Not Elected on Election Day.
Election Day, to most voters, is the Tuesday in November of an even year when the governor and Congress are on the ballot. Fewer than a third of states put school boards on it. The rest vote for them on a spring Tuesday, at the summer primary, in an odd-year November, or on a date each district sets for itself. This is a state-by-state count of when the school board vote actually happens.
When your state votes for school board
Every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, colored by the day the law names for the regular school board election. Hover a tile for the date, the cycle and the count.
Vote with the governor and Congress
13
states, plus the District of Columbia, put school boards on the November ballot of even years. Between them they hold 15% of the country's boards and 18% of its students.
Vote on a day of their own
55%
of school boards are elected, by statute, on a day when no governor or member of Congress is on the ballot: a spring Tuesday, the summer primary, or an odd-year November. They govern 44% of students.
Which Tuesday
Ask a voter when Election Day is and the answer is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in an even year, when the governor, the legislature and Congress are on the ballot. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia elect their school boards on that day. In the other 37 states the school board vote comes on some other day, if it comes at all. Hawaii's board is appointed by the governor, and so is Puerto Rico's.
The difference is easy to miss, and it shapes who shows up. A voter who turns out for the big November election and nothing else will never see most of the country's school boards on a ballot. By the day the law names, 55% of boards are elected when no governor or member of Congress is running, and those boards govern 44% of students. The map above shows where each calendar holds. What follows walks through them, starting with the one most people picture.
Six calendars, by boards and by students
All 13,019 regular districts and 45.3 million students, grouped by the election day their state sets. Blue is the share of boards, green the share of students.
With the governor and Congress
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia hold the school board vote on the general-election ballot, Michigan, Indiana, Maryland, Arizona and Alabama among them. They hold 1,908 boards, 15% of the national total, and 8.3 million students, 18%. Louisiana puts every seat on every parish board up at once on the midterm date. Indiana will print a party label beside school board names for the first time this November.
In an even year, but at the primary
Five states vote for school board in the even year but not in November. Florida settles its seats on the August primary ballot, and a candidate who takes a majority there never appears in the fall. Tennessee uses its August county general election. Georgia and West Virginia vote at the May primary, and Arkansas moved every board election to the March preferential primary in 2025. The group is small in boards, 5% of the total, and large in students, 14%, because Florida and Georgia are in it.
November of odd years
Nine states elect boards at the municipal election in November of odd years, when in most of them no state or federal office is on the ballot. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Colorado are the largest. The group holds 2,573 boards, 20% of the total, and 7.0 million students, 15%. New Jersey is a case of its own. Its board terms run three years, so it votes in November every year, odd and even. Of its 541 boards, 13 kept an April election, Newark among them, and 8 are appointed by the mayor.
Spring
The largest group of boards votes in spring. Ten states hold the school board election on a day in March, April, May or June, and together they hold 3,891 boards, 30% of every board in the country. Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Oklahoma vote on a Tuesday in April. New York votes on the third Tuesday in May, the same day it votes on the school budget. New Hampshire votes in March, Delaware and Montana in May, Oregon in May of odd years. Because these are mostly small districts, the spring states hold 15% of students, well below their share of boards.
Where the big states are
Ten states leave the date, the cycle or both to each district, and the two largest school systems in the country are among them. Texas districts choose May or November, and a 2025 law lets any of them move to November. California's default is November of odd years, but a 2015 law pushed most districts onto the even-year general election. Neither state publishes a list of what each district chose. Together they hold 10.3 million students, 23% of the nation's, and no figure on this page pretends to know their calendar. The choose-your-own states as a group hold 26% of boards and 34% of students, the largest share of students under any heading.
Three of those states can be sorted board by board from official 2026 files, and they show how much the choice varies inside one state. In Minnesota, 302 of 327 boards vote in even years and 25 in odd years. In North Carolina, 89 boards vote this November, 19 settled their seats on the March primary date, and 14 vote in odd years under local acts, Charlotte-Mecklenburg among them. In Virginia, 93 county divisions vote in November of odd years with their boards of supervisors, 24 cities, Arlington among them, vote in even years, 5 cities vote in odd years, and 9 cities appoint their boards.
| State | When | Boards | Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | November, even years | 302 | 612,459 |
| November, odd years | 25 | 184,818 | |
| North Carolina | November 2026 | 89 | 1,102,480 |
| March 2026 primary date | 19 | 121,949 | |
| Odd years, or no elected board | 14 | 177,706 | |
| Virginia | November, odd years (counties) | 93 | 887,664 |
| November, even years (cities) | 24 | 302,212 | |
| November, odd years (cities) | 5 | 28,200 | |
| Appointed (cities) | 9 | 39,174 |
On the ballot this November
So how many students have a school board seat on the ballot on November 3, 2026? Somewhere between 26% and 56%. The floor counts only what the law makes certain: the general-election states, Minnesota's and North Carolina's even-year boards, Virginia's even-year cities, New Jersey's November districts, and Chicago, which elects its full board for the first time. The ceiling adds every board in the choose-your-own states and every partisan board in Georgia, and no reading of the law puts all of them on that ballot. The answer sits in between, and nothing short of a district-by-district list for Texas and California will narrow it.
Which way the law is moving
Over the past fifteen years the calendar has moved toward November and toward even years, one state at a time. Michigan consolidated in 2012 and Arizona in 2014. Virginia moved its May elections to November in 2022. Arkansas moved to the even-year primary in 2025, and Texas opened the November date to every district the same year. South Dakota narrowed its school election to the June primary date or November from 2026. Kansas has a bill to move to even years from 2028, reported from committee in January and not passed. Ballotpedia, testifying on that bill, counted fourteen states that hold school board elections mostly with the federal election. This page counts thirteen states and the District of Columbia, the difference being how a state with a partial rule is coded.
- Texas, 2025. HB 3546 let any school district move its trustee election to the November uniform date, effective June 20, 2025; SB 1494 allowed a one-time move to November of odd years. Source
- Arkansas, 2025. Act 503 of 2025 put every board election in even years on the preferential primary date. Source
- South Dakota, 2026. From 2026 the annual school election must fall on the June primary date or the November general date. Source
- Kansas, 2026. HB 2452 would move local and school elections to even years from 2028; reported from committee on January 26, 2026, not passed. Source
- Virginia, 2022. All May local elections, school boards included, moved to November. Source
- Arizona, 2014. Consolidated election law put school boards on the even-year November ballot. Source
- Michigan, 2012. School board elections moved to November of even years only. Source
What the calendar does to the vote
The reason legislatures keep taking this question up is turnout. A school election held on its own day draws a different and smaller electorate than one held with the governor's race, and three peer-reviewed studies have measured how different. Their findings, in their words, are below. This page measures calendars only and takes no side on which one is better.
- Turnout is lower in off-cycle school board elections, and organized groups carry more weight in them. Sarah F. Anzia, "Election Timing and the Electoral Influence of Interest Groups," Journal of Politics, 2011.
- Moving an election off-cycle changes who votes, with older voters most over-represented, and the policy effects they measure are modest. Vladimir Kogan, Stéphane Lavertu and Zachary Peskowitz, "Election Timing, Electorate Composition, and Policy Outcomes: Evidence from School Districts," American Journal of Political Science, 2018.
- Board members elected on-cycle hold views closer to their districts' residents than those elected off-cycle. Michael T. Hartney and Sam D. Hayes, "Off-Cycle and Out of Sync: How Election Timing Influences Political Representation," State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 2021.
What the count leaves out
The count is of calendars, not of elections held. A state coded to spring still has boards whose seats draw no candidate in a given year, and a November state still has boards with no contest. Turnout is not measured here, because we have no turnout figure of our own; the studies above are the best evidence on it. Texas and California are not resolved. No calendar and no state is ranked.
| State | When | Boards | Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | November, even years | 302 | 612,459 |
| November, odd years | 25 | 184,818 | |
| North Carolina | November 2026 | 89 | 1,102,480 |
| March 2026 primary date | 19 | 121,949 | |
| Odd years, or no elected board | 14 | 177,706 | |
| Virginia | November, odd years (counties) | 93 | 887,664 |
| November, even years (cities) | 24 | 302,212 | |
| November, odd years (cities) | 5 | 28,200 | |
| Appointed (cities) | 9 | 39,174 |
The table
| State | When | Cycle | Boards | Students | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | November | even | 139 | 744,296 | Source |
| Arizona | November | even | 216 | 869,299 | Source |
| District of Columbia | November | even | 1 | 52,299 | Source |
| Indiana | November | even | 290 | 982,208 | Source |
| Kentucky | November | even | 171 | 656,111 | Source |
| Louisiana | November | even, every four years | 69 | 586,537 | Source |
| Maryland | November | even | 24 | 891,130 | Source |
| Michigan | November | even | 536 | 1,214,168 | Source |
| Nebraska | November | even | 245 | 330,136 | Source |
| Nevada | November | even | 17 | 419,090 | Source |
| Rhode Island | November | even | 36 | 121,108 | Source |
| South Carolina | November | even | 75 | 741,248 | Source |
| Utah | November | even | 41 | 602,404 | Source |
| Wyoming | November | even | 48 | 89,377 | Source |
| Arkansas | March preferential primary; runoff in November | even | 233 | 460,924 | Source |
| Florida | August primary; November if no majority | even | 67 | 2,825,028 | Source |
| Georgia | May general primary; November for partisan boards | even | 180 | 1,701,236 | Source |
| Tennessee | August county general | even | 141 | 993,178 | Source |
| West Virginia | May primary | even | 55 | 238,738 | Source |
| Colorado | November | odd | 178 | 839,134 | Source |
| Connecticut | November | odd | 168 | 471,251 | Source |
| Iowa | November | odd | 325 | 503,693 | Source |
| Idaho | November | odd | 115 | 282,382 | Source |
| Kansas | November | odd | 285 | 479,379 | Source |
| New Mexico | November | odd | 89 | 284,454 | Source |
| Ohio | November | odd | 617 | 1,508,022 | Source |
| Pennsylvania | November | odd | 499 | 1,502,393 | Source |
| Washington | November | odd | 297 | 1,087,695 | Source |
| New Jersey | November | every year, three-year terms | 541 | 1,298,717 | Source |
| Delaware | May | every year | 19 | 123,124 | Source |
| Illinois | April | odd | 852 | 1,837,668 | Source |
| Missouri | April | every year | 515 | 861,692 | Source |
| Montana | May | every year | 392 | 146,984 | Source |
| North Dakota | April to June, board's choice | every year | 166 | 119,756 | Source |
| New Hampshire | March | every year | 165 | 157,660 | Source |
| New York | May | every year | 684 | 1,501,690 | Source |
| Oklahoma | February primary, April general | every year | 507 | 642,165 | Source |
| Oregon | May | odd | 171 | 534,695 | Source |
| Vermont | March | every year | 0 | 0 | Source |
| Wisconsin | April | every year | 420 | 793,595 | Source |
| Alaska | October for most boroughs and REAAs; April in Anchorage | every year | 52 | 129,454 | Source |
| California | November; most districts in even years, some odd, a few at the June primary | even or odd, district's choice | 976 | 5,143,275 | Source |
| Massachusetts | November for cities; the spring town election for towns | odd for cities; every year for towns | 322 | 867,740 | Source |
| Maine | November or June | annual or biennial, by municipality | 192 | 163,684 | Source |
| Minnesota | November | even or odd, by board resolution | 327 | 797,277 | Source |
| Mississippi | November for county boards; municipal separate districts appointed | every year, one seat at a time | 138 | 427,452 | Source |
| North Carolina | November, or the March primary date | even for most; odd under some local acts | 122 | 1,402,135 | Source |
| South Dakota | June primary day or November, district's choice | every year | 148 | 140,507 | Source |
| Texas | May or November, district's choice | every year with three-year terms, or alternate years with four-year terms | 1,020 | 5,108,224 | Source |
| Virginia | November | odd for counties, even for most cities | 131 | 1,257,250 | Source |
| Hawaii | No election | 1 | 167,071 | Source | |
| Puerto Rico | No election | 1 | 235,819 | Source |
Rows are grouped by calendar in the order of the chart above. Vermont has no regular districts in the federal universe; its schools sit in supervisory unions. Boards and students are the post No. 1 universe for the state.
Method
- Sources. One statute, official election calendar or state school boards association page per state, linked in the table, read on October 15, 2026. Each state is coded by the day its law sets for the regular election of school board members, from the statute or official calendar in its row. Where the law lets each district choose, the state is counted as such and nothing is guessed.
- Universe. The same regular districts as post No. 1, all 13,019 of them, including Puerto Rico's single department district, which has no elected board and sits with Hawaii in the last row of the chart. The shares in every figure are shares of this universe.
- Six calendars. A state is placed in the general-election group only when its law puts regular board elections in November of even years statewide. States whose even-year election falls at the primary or on an August date are their own group, because the governor and Congress are not on that ballot. New Jersey is its own row because its November election falls in every year. "Spring" covers March through June. "Each district chooses" means the law lets each board choose the date, the cycle, or both.
- Resolved splits. Minnesota and North Carolina are split using the official 2026 candidate filings published by each state's election office: a board absent from the 2026 list elects in odd years. Virginia is split using the Department of Elections' five-year election calendar for counties and its city schedule. New Jersey's 13 April districts are the ones named in the results of the April 2026 election, and its 8 mayor-appointed boards are those confirmed one by one; both groups are taken out of the November floor.
- Exceptions inside uniform states. Every state has boards that differ from its rule by local act or charter, and they stay in their state's row: Alabama's elected city boards, Maryland's partly appointed boards, Connecticut's May towns, Chicago, New York's largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis, Tennessee's city districts. None is large enough to move a state between calendars.
- Not measured. Turnout, contested or uncontested seats, who sits on the boards, and whether any calendar produces better boards. No state is ranked.
Every figure on this page is computed from the School Boar database and the sources linked above, and the queries and counts behind it are available on request.
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