There could be no contests in Manteca City Council races in the Nov. 3 election.

And if that happens it could be the first time in city history — or at least as far back as 1960 — it will happen.

The filing period opens Monday, July 13, and closes Aug. 5.

Only four people so far have scheduled appointments with City Clerk Cassie Candini-Tilton to review the process and filing requirements to qualify for the ballot.

They are incumbent Gary Singh and challenger Jacob Naven in the citywide race for mayor as well as Dave Breitenbucher for the District 3 City Council seat and Mike Morowit for the District 4 City Council seat.

Both Breitenbucher and Morowit are incumbents seeking their third four-year terms.

Ironically, the switch to council district elections instead of citywide races was done in a bid to increase citizen participation in elections as well as to broaden the representation on the council.

At one point last decade, three of the five council members resided within 10 blocks of each other near Woodward Park in south Manteca.

There has not been an instance since at least 1960 when council elections were citywide that there wasn’t at last one more candidate than there were open seats.

Since the switch to district elections in 2022, there have been two times when the incumbent ran unopposed.

The city started moving to district elections in early 2020 when they received a written challenge.

Such challenges in the past in other California cities were followed with expensive lawsuits that jurisdictions always lost in court.

State law basically calls for lawsuits against cities when such challenges are made.

At the root of district elections where candidates as well as the voters that will decide who win must reside, was to “level” the playing field to assure elected bodies reflected ethnic makeup up communities they represent per the California Legislature.

Before 2020, the City Council had two Hispanics, two Caucasians, and an Asian-Indian member in terms of ethnicity which was basically a mirror of the makeup of the city’s population.

There are now four Caucasians and one Asian-Indian.

And if Naven prevails and there are no challengers to the two incumbents, Manteca would have an all-Caucasian council.

That hasn’t happened since a six-year period in the 1990s that ended with the election of Vince Hernandez in 2002. He ended up serving for 14 years.

That would mean what is for all practical purposes a state mandate to create situation to have more local governing bodies reflect the ethnic makeup of communities has done the exact opposite in Manteca.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com