← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · California
No endorsement
The race
Campbell Union Elementary School District elects its board by trustee area. Three seats are up on November 3, 2026, per the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters' Final Qualified List:
- Area 1 — NOT a contest. Richard Nguyen, the incumbent (in office since 2022), was the only qualified candidate and was appointed in lieu of election under Education Code §5328. No call is made.
- Area 4 — contested. Mohit Vora vs. Chris Miller.
- Area 5 — contested. Vartika Chandra vs. Sam Krow-Lucal.
The candidates
### Area 1 — appointed in lieu of election
Richard Nguyen — Credit: Sitting trustee since 2022; he has held board officer roles (he appears as vice president in district organizational records from the last cycle). Dirt: No proven adverse finding was located in this pass. He takes the seat without a vote because no opponent filed.
### Area 4
Mohit Vora — Credit: Vora has taken the GoodParty.org pledge (the organization's people-first, anti-big-money commitment). Dirt: None located. Gap: No campaign site, questionnaire response, platform, or endorsement was located for Vora in this pass. Unproven; record insufficient (documented below).
Chris Miller — Credit: Miller is a former Campbell Union trustee — he was sworn in as a newly elected board member in December 2018 alongside returning trustees Nguyen and Danielle Cohen, per district organizational reporting — so he brings prior service on this exact board. Dirt: None located. Gap: No 2026 campaign site, questionnaire response, or platform was located for Miller in this pass; his prior board votes were not retrievable at this pass's sourcing depth.
### Area 5
Vartika Chandra — No campaign site, questionnaire response, platform, endorsement, or news mention was located in this pass. Unproven; record insufficient (documented below).
Sam Krow-Lucal — No campaign site, questionnaire response, platform, endorsement, or news mention was located in this pass. Unproven; record insufficient (documented below).
Pros and cons
- Vora — Pro: GoodParty pledge — a documented independence commitment. Con: Nothing else findable: no positions on curriculum, budgets, parental rights, or transparency.
- Miller — Pro: Has actually done this job on this board (elected 2018). Con: Published nothing findable for this comeback; no current positions documented.
- Chandra — Pro: None documented. Con: No findable record.
- Krow-Lucal — Pro: None documented. Con: No findable record.
Record gaps
Searches run for every candidate (October 25, 2026): Registrar's Final Qualified List (roster and appointed-in-lieu status); GoodParty.org candidate pages (Vora's pledge; area assignments for all four contested candidates); Campbell Union district site and school news pages; San José Spotlight archive searches on all four names; candidate-name web searches for campaign sites, Vote411/LWV questionnaires, and endorsements (including the Santa Clara County Democratic Party's October 2, 2026 action update, which announces 67 endorsed local candidates without naming a Campbell Union Elementary endorsement in the material retrieved). Result: this is the thinnest file in the batch — four contested candidates, one pledge and one prior-service fact between them. Insufficient record is an earned verdict here, documented as above.
OUR CALL
Area 4 — no endorsement (insufficient record). Miller's prior service is a real credit and Vora's pledge is a real signal, but neither man published a position a voter — or this page — can weigh on curriculum, parental rights, fiscal stewardship, or transparency.
Area 5 — no endorsement (insufficient record). Neither candidate published anything findable. We do not endorse names we cannot source.
Area 1 — no call. Nguyen was appointed in lieu of election; there is no contest to decide.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website. Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. --- Sources — bulleted with URLs. - Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters — Final Qualified List of Local Eligible Candidates, Nov 3 2026 General Election — https://files.santaclaracounty.gov/exjcpb1296/2026-09/qualified-list-of-local-candidates-9-28-26.pdf?VersionId=CM6jbwAVTLFIjLakj6hJku2l9KPAIxli - GoodParty.org — Campbell Union Elementary School Board candidates (areas, Vora pledge, Nguyen incumbency) — https://goodparty.org/elections/ca/campbell-union-elementary-school-district/position/local-school-board - Campbell Union School District / Campbell School of Innovation — Board Reorganizes for 2019 (Miller sworn in as trustee, Dec. 2018) — https://csi.campbellusd.org/node/2493/users/bit.ly/bit.ly/CSIdistance%C2%A0?&og_group_ref_target_id=1&og_group_ref_target_id_mine&og_subspaces_view_all=0&og_subspaces_view_parent=0&uid&oa_core_default_to_current_user=0&flagged=0&items_per_page=5&oa_section_ref_target_id=All AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.