Nonpartisan, not unimportant

When Owensboro voters go to the polls in May, they will see candidates for city commission listed in a section designated as a nonpartisan ballot. Owensboro is one of the majority of cities in Kentucky--and nationwide--to select city council and mayor candidates through nonpartisan elections, reflecting an understanding of these offices as channels to deliver municipal services to local residents instead of as tools for advancing an ideological agenda.

• All but six of Kentucky’s 415 cities hold nonpartisan elections for city commissioners and mayor, and more than 75% of cities nationwide follow a similar nonpartisan model.

• The popularity of nonpartisan elections continues to grow. Recent state legislation expanded the option to hold nonpartisan elections to consolidated city-county governments in Kentucky, and Louisville will hold its first nonpartisan elections this year.

Progressive-era advocacy led to the adoption of nonpartisan municipal elections, beginning in the country’s larger cities, in the late 19^th century. Today, the pervasiveness of nonpartisan elections highlights the widespread acceptance of the model, although arguments persist on both sides.

• Advocates of nonpartisan elections suggest that the absence of party affiliation removes a key obstacle to cooperation between candidates who may be on otherwise opposing ideological sides. The lack of party involvement may also encourage independence on the part of incumbents and open-mindedness among constituents toward policies they would otherwise reject as being the product of an opposing faction.

• On the other hand, opponents have raised concerns about potential discriminatory effects of nonpartisan elections. According to this argument, the lack of party involvement contributes to less robust get-out-the-vote operations and lower turnout overall, which often produces overrepresentation among upper socioeconomic status voters. Additionally, some critics argue that low information voters, in the absence of partisan affiliation data, will be more likely to cast their vote based on name recognition, favoring incumbents and well-funded candidates, and possibly disadvantaging candidates with names that sound foreign.

  
  

Judicial elections in Kentucky are also nonpartisan. This year, Daviess County residents will have the opportunity to vote for a judge in the 6^th Judicial District. The importance of impartiality, both actual and perceived, is a major factor encouraging restrictions on their partisan activity during campaigns and while in office.

• The Kentucky Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits judges and judicial candidates from engaging in “political or campaign activity” that could call into question the courts’ “independence, integrity, or impartiality”.

• As of 2025, 19 states selected judges below the supreme court level through non-partisan elections.