There are 2,151 candidates vying for 1,569 open seats in the Nov. 8 school board election, according to a New Jersey School Boards Association analysis of unofficial data provided by county clerks.
Last year, there were 1,594 open seats in the November election and 2,174 candidates, making the ratio of candidates to open seats almost exactly the same year over year – 1.37 for the upcoming election versus 1.36 last year.
Of the 2,151 candidates vying for a seat this November, 905 are incumbents. Last year, 1,030 incumbents were seeking to be re-elected. That marks a 5% drop in the number of incumbents as a percentage of overall candidates – 42% this year versus 47% last November.
This year, there are 660 uncontested seats – a slight drop when compared with the 684 last year, which is consistent with there being a slightly smaller number of open seats.
This year, no petition was filed for 151 seats, a slight decrease from the 156 seats that did not garner a petition last year. These seats can be filled by a write-in candidate.
There are five counties that have more than 100 open board seats up for grabs. They are:
- Bergen: 164.
- Monmouth: 164.
- Burlington: 118.
- Camden: 113.
- Morris: 112.
The counties with the fewest number of board seats available are:
- Hudson: 19.
- Mercer: 25.
- Salem: 37.
- Cape May: 44.
- Essex: 45.
- Cumberland: 46.
There are four counties where more than half of the candidates vying for election are incumbents. They are:
- Salem: 66%.
- Sussex: 54%.
- Warren: 58%.
- Cumberland: 57%.
To see a detailed breakdown of the candidates by county, view our chart.