SALT LAKE CITY — The vast majority of county-level positions in Utah do not have any major-party competition, according to a Scripps analysis of sample ballots and candidate lists compiled from all 29 counties.
Those uncontested offices include commissioners, councils, county attorneys, the sheriff and clerks — a lot of important jobs.
Across the state, 124 races have only a Republican on the ballot. 9 races have only a Democrat on the ballot. By contrast, Utah has 26 contested county races, along with another six where only unaffiliated candidates are running or where there is just a write-in candidate.
Community groups plan poll watching presence for Utah elections:
The two major political parties have fielded candidates for federal and state races. For those contests — 81% of races for Congress and the state legislature — both Republicans and Democrats appear on the ballot. Utah's fledgling third party, the Forward Party, is on the ballot in three races that do not have a Democrat.
A map shows where there are contested races and 18 counties don't have a single county race with a contest between a Democrat and a Republican.
Salt Lake City has contests in most races, though notably not for county clerk, where Democratic incumbent Lannie Chapman is unopposed. Weber, Davis, and Utah counties have few contested races, and combined they are home to almost 1.5 million Utahns. The other big population counties, Cache and Washington, have more options for voters, with each having three contested county positions.
There are two other notable outliers. Grand County does have contested races, but not between parties. Most of its candidates are declared unaffiliated, and of the nine Democrat-only county races, a majority — five — are in Summit County.