Rancho Cordova's City Council voted 3-2 to hold a full November election for its District 2 seat even though only one candidate, Elliott Stevenson, qualified for the ballot — a decision expected to cost the city more than $14,000 that could have been saved by simply appointing him.
The council had the option under state law to cancel the race and appoint Stevenson directly, according to the Sacramento Bee. Instead, Mayor Garrett Gatewood pushed to keep the election on the books, arguing it would show that District 2 had council representation and would help familiarize the community with Stevenson's name, per the same report. Council Member Siri Pulipati agreed with Gatewood, saying the election gave voters an opportunity to write in a candidate if they chose.
Council Members Linda Budge and Joe Little voted against holding the election, preferring instead to appoint Stevenson outright. Little said holding the election would spend taxpayer money essentially to promote a single candidate, while Budge argued that Stevenson had earned the right to serve and that the election would unnecessarily spend money, according to the Bee's reporting. A staff report cited in that coverage found that canceling the election would have saved the city over $14,000.
A Legal Framework Built for Exactly This Situation
California cities regularly face this fork in the road when only one candidate files for an open council seat. Under California Elections Code § 10229, a city council presented with an uncontested candidate can appoint the nominee, appoint some other eligible voter if nobody ran, or simply let the election proceed — but any appointment action has to happen by the 75th day before the general election, which fell on August 20 for this November 3 contest.
Rancho Cordova is far from alone in wrestling with that choice this cycle. Other California cities, including Bellflower, Isleton and Sonoma, scheduled their own votes under the same statute this August specifically to appoint unopposed candidates and avoid election costs, according to Los Cerritos Community News. Cities that have gone the appointment route in past cycles have reported real savings — La Verne saved $50,000 in 2024 and Los Gatos saved $95,482 the same year by canceling uncontested races, per the City of La Verne's own accounting.
Write-In Rights Versus a Locked-In Result
Pulipati's write-in argument carries legal weight. If the council had voted to appoint Stevenson instead, the city clerk would have been legally barred from accepting any write-in candidacy statements for that seat afterward, a restriction spelled out under the same elections code and highlighted in the City of Isleton's own review of its comparable August vote. By keeping District 2 on the ballot, Rancho Cordova voters will instead receive an official ballot with Stevenson's name alongside a blank write-in line, with write-in filings opening September 7 and closing October 20, and vote-by-mail ballots going out starting October 5, per the city's election timeline.
Rancho Cordova's clerk, Stacy Leitner, published a legal notice on August 11 certifying Stevenson as the sole qualified nominee for District 2 and notifying the public of the council's options under state law ahead of the vote. Stevenson would have received a refund of his roughly $650 candidate statement fee had the council chosen to cancel the election instead, per the Bee.
Stevenson's Ties to the Mayor Who Fought for the Election
Elliott Stevenson currently serves on Rancho Cordova's Planning Commission, to which Mayor Gatewood nominated him in April 2022, and he also serves as a First Lieutenant JAG Officer in the California State Guard, according to city records. Stevenson was endorsed in a July news release by Gatewood, Budge, and Mayor David Sander, even as Gatewood and Budge landed on opposite sides of the council's vote over whether to hold his election at all.
District 2's First Test Since the Switch to District Elections
This is the first election for District 2 since Rancho Cordova redrew its council map in 2023, part of a broader shift away from at-large elections. The city adopted its current district map, known as Map 516c, on October 2, 2023, after voting-rights attorney Scott J. Rafferty threatened a legal challenge under the California Voting Rights Act, as detailed by CapRadio. Rafferty had threatened similar lawsuits against several other Sacramento-area cities around the same time, prompting Rancho Cordova to pursue a safe-harbor districting process rather than risk litigation.
The city's shift to district-based voting has unfolded in stages. Districts 1, 3 and 4 were decided during the November 2024 general election, when Sander won District 1, Joe Little won District 3, and Siri Pulipati won District 4, setting up Districts 2 and 5 for this year's cycle, according to reporting from ABC10. District 2 itself spans much of Rancho Cordova north of Folsom Boulevard and southeast of Coloma Road.
Voters will also see a separate, contested race on the same ballot this November. District 5 features a three-way contest pitting incumbent Vice Mayor Linda Budge, who is running for reelection, against challengers Lilia Darbinyan and Tegan Mauldin. Budge cast her vote against putting District 2 on the ballot even as she actively campaigns in her own contested District 5 race.
