Partisan vs. Nonpartisan Elections
Municipal election systems are determined by the nature of the council members' constituency and by the presence or absence of party labels on the ballot. With regard to the latter feature, there are two types of ballots for city council members. In partisan elections, the party affiliation of the candidate is indicated on the ballot, whereas in nonpartisan elections it is not. According to a 2001 survey, 77 percent of the responding cities have nonpartisan elections, and 23 percent have partisan elections.
Proponents of nonpartisan ballots suggest that:
- Political parties are irrelevant to providing services.
- Cooperation between elected officials belonging to different parties is more likely.
Proponents for partisan elections argue that:
- The absence of party labels confuses voters; a voter who must choose from among a group of candidates whom she knows nothing about will have no meaningful basis in casting a ballot.
- In the absence of a party ballot, voters will turn to whatever cue is available, which often turns out to be the ethnicity of a candidate's name.
- Non-partisanship tends to produce elected officials more representative of the upper socioeconomic strata than of the general populace and aggravates the class bias in voting turnout, because in true non-partisan systems there are no organizations of local party workers to bring lower-class citizens to the polls on election day.
Listed below is the form of government for the thirty most populous cities in the United States, based on the most current U.S. Census projections. The table uses updated information from the member database at the National League of Cities.
Election Type of the 30 Most Populous Cities
| Rank | City Name | State | Election Type |
| 1 | New York | NY | Partisan |
| 2 | Los Angeles | CA | Non-Partisan |
| 3 | Chicago | IL | Partisan |
| 4 | Houston | TX | Partisan |
| 5 | Phoenix | AZ | Non-Partisan |
| 6 | Philadelphia | PA | Partisan |
| 7 | San Antonio | TX | Non-Partisan |
| 8 | Dallas | TX | Non-Partisan |
| 9 | San Diego | CA | Non-Partisan |
| 10 | San Jose | CA | Non-Partisan |
| 11 | Detroit | MI | Non-Partisan |
| 12 | San Francisco | CA | Partisan |
| 13 | Jacksonville | FL | Non-Partisan |
| 14 | Indianapolis | IN | Partisan |
| 15 | Austin | TX | Non-Partisan |
| 16 | Columbus | OH | Non-Partisan |
| 17 | Fort Worth | TX | Non-Partisan |
| 18 | Charlotte | NC | Partisan |
| 19 | Memphis | TN | Non-Partisan |
| 20 | Baltimore | MD | Partisan |
| 21 | Boston | MA | Non-Partisan |
| 22 | El Paso | TX | Non-Partisan |
| 23 | Milwaukee | WI | Non-Partisan |
| 24 | Denver | CO | Non-Partisan |
| 25 | Seattle | WA | Non-Partisan |
| 26 | Nashville | TN | Non-Partisan |
| 27 | Washington | DC | Partisan |
| 28 | Las Vegas | NV | Non-Partisan |
| 29 | Portland | OR | Non-Partisan |
| 30 | Louisville | KY | Partisan |
Sources
MacManus, Susan A. and Charles S. Bullock, III. "The Form, Structure, and Composition of America's Municipalities in the New Millenium." In The Municipal Year Book 2003. Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association 2003.
Ross, Bernard and Myron A. Levine. Urban Politics: Power in Metropolitan American, 6th edition. Florence, KY: Wadsworth Publishing, 2000.
Svara, James H. Two Decades of Continuity and Change in American City Councils. Washington, D.C.: National League of Cities, September, 2003.
