# El Monte City Council, District 3 Dr. Julia Ruedas is running uncontested for El Monte City Council, District 3. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of six district seats on El Monte's City Council. The council also has a separately elected Mayor, for 7 members total. They vote on the budget, land use, and city laws. The term is four years. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. - Jurisdiction: City of El Monte - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-council-3 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Dr. Julia Ruedas** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Dr. Julia Ruedas was the only candidate to qualify for El Monte's District 3 council seat, so they run unopposed on the November 3 ballot for a second term. The winner takes a 4-year term on El Monte's 7-member City Council. They cast one vote alongside the separately elected Mayor and five other district councilmembers on the budget, land use, and city ordinances. Day-to-day city operations run through an appointed city manager, not the council directly. With no opponent, this isn't really a choice between candidates — the meaningful information is how Ruedas has already used the seat and the civic track record, including three earlier school-board campaigns, that they brought to it. ## Dr. Julia Ruedas Dr. Julia Ruedas, MPA, Ed.D., is the incumbent District 3 councilmember, first elected in November 2022 and now seeking a second term unopposed. State campaign-finance records show three previous campaigns for the El Monte City School District governing board, in 2015, 2017, and 2018, before they ran for council; the city's own biography page adds only their degrees beyond their term dates. **Strengths:** A full term of council incumbency plus an earlier campaign history for the El Monte City School District board — a longer civic track record than their thin official bio shows alone. **Trade-offs:** Neither the school-board campaigns nor their current council record are described anywhere in public-facing detail — no platform and no independent news coverage were found. **Keep in mind:** Ruedas was not one of the two dissenting votes on the council's January 2026 vote to study eliminating El Monte's elected Mayor, Clerk, and Treasurer offices, and joined the council's unanimous February 2026 vote to table the idea instead. ## Sources 1. [City of El Monte — Notice of Election, November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (one Mayor at-large, 2-yr term; Council Districts 2, 3, 6; City Clerk and City Treasurer at-large — all four 4-yr terms)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7811/NOTICE-CALLING-FOR-ELECTION-NOVEMBER-2026) 2. [City of El Monte — Interested Candidate List, Status of Candidate Pulling & Filing Nomination Papers (current through the extended Aug. 12, 2026 filing deadline; all three Mayor filers reached 'Date Qualified')](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7854/Interested-Candidate-List---8-13-2026) 3. [City of El Monte — City Council (official roster: the Mayor plus six single-member district councilmembers, a 7-member body in all; links to each member's biography page)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/342/City-Council) 4. [City of El Monte — Councilmember Dr. Julia Ruedas, MPA, Ed.D., District 3 (official biography page: elected Nov. 2022, term expires Nov. 2026; no biographical narrative posted beyond term dates and degrees)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/686/Dr-Julia-Ruedas) 5. [CA Secretary of State — Cal-Access filer search, 'Ruedas' (shows 'Ruedas for El Monte City Council 2026' active, 'Ruedas for El Monte City Council 2022' terminated, and — under the same entity ID — three earlier 'Ruedas for El Monte City School Board' committees from 2015, 2017, and 2018, corroborating a school-board campaign history before her 2022 council win; Cal-Access alone does not confirm she won any of the school-board races)](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Ruedas) 6. [San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Southern California News Group) — El Monte City Council tables vote on making city clerk, city treasurer, mayor appointed roles (unanimous Feb. 25, 2026 vote to indefinitely table the restructuring; effort never reached the Nov. 2026 ballot)](https://www.sgvtribune.com/2026/02/26/el-monte-city-council-tables-vote-on-making-city-clerk-city-treasurer-appointed-roles-rotating-mayor/) 7. [The Mid Valley News — Council Advances Plan to Restructure Offices (names the Jan. 14, 2026 5-2 council vote to begin outreach on eliminating the elected Mayor/Clerk/Treasurer offices, with Ancona and Herrera voting no; superseded by the SGV Tribune's Feb. 25, 2026 tabling)](https://midvalleynews.com/council-advances-plan-to-restructure-offices/) ## The rest of the ballot El Monte City Council, District 3 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "El Monte City Council, District 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-council-3 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.