# Mayor of McFarland

Ricardo Cano is running uncontested for Mayor of McFarland. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person presides over McFarland City Council meetings and represents the city publicly. They vote as one of five members on the budget and city laws. The council is the Mayor plus four district councilmembers. An appointed city manager runs daily government. The Mayor is elected citywide, unlike the four district seats. The term is four years.

- Jurisdiction: City of Mcfarland
- 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/mcfarland-mayor
- 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: September 3, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Ricardo Cano** — Vice Mayor

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Only one candidate qualified for Mayor this cycle: Ricardo Cano, the city's sitting Vice Mayor and District 4 councilmember, appears unopposed for the open seat — so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

McFarland's Mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes as one of five members (the Mayor plus four district councilmembers) on the budget and city ordinances — day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. Unlike the four district council seats, the Mayor is elected citywide. The term is four years.

Incumbent Mayor Saul Ayon did not file for reelection, leaving the seat open. Cano is running for Mayor while keeping their own District 4 council seat, which isn't up again until 2028 — so a Cano win would not itself create a second, District 4 vacancy this cycle. Beyond their current city title and filed ballot designation, McFarland's own site publishes no officeholder biographies, and no independent profile of Cano — Ballotpedia, local news, or their own campaign material — could be found this cycle despite a real search effort; this dataset does not speculate about their background or platform.

## Ricardo Cano

The city's sitting Vice Mayor, elected to the District 4 council seat (term runs through November 2028), now running unopposed for the open, citywide Mayor's seat. Their filed ballot designation is "Vice Mayor." No further biographical detail — occupation, background, or stated priorities — could be confirmed from any reachable source.

**Strengths:** Already serving on the council as Vice Mayor, with a District 4 term that continues on its own schedule regardless of this race's outcome.

**Trade-offs:** No documented citywide record yet as an at-large officeholder — the Mayor's seat answers to a different, citywide constituency than their council district.

**Keep in mind:** Running unopposed means their mayoral platform faces no public test this cycle, and this dataset could not confirm one from any reachable source — treat the absence of a documented platform as a research gap, not a comment on Cano themselves.

## Sources

1. [City of McFarland, Office of the City Clerk -- "Certified List of Candidates," General Municipal Election, November 3, 2026, signed and sealed by City Clerk Erika De La Cruz, dated Aug. 13, 2026: certifies Ricardo Cano ("Vice Mayor") for Mayor; Maria T. Perez ("Appointed Incumbent") for Council District 1 (Full Term); Martin Gutierrez ("Appointed Incumbent") for Council District 2 (Short Term); and M. Anita Gonzalez ("Incumbent") for Council District 3 (Full Term) -- one certified candidate per seat, none submitting a Candidate Statement](https://media-002-us.cdn.govstack.com/mcfarlandcity-us/media/smbj0nbv/certified-list-of-candidates-general-municipal-election-november-3-2026.pdf)
2. [City of McFarland's own 2026 General Municipal Election page: confirms Mayor (4-year term), Council District 1 (4-year term), Council District 2 (2-year Short Term), and Council District 3 (4-year term) as the four offices up Nov. 3, 2026, with a July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 filing period and a link to the Certified List of Candidates; states no City Clerk or City Treasurer seat is up this cycle](https://www.mcfarlandcity.org/council-administration/city-clerk/2026-general-municipal-election/)
3. [City of McFarland's own "District Election Process" page: the city adopted district-based Council elections (the "red" map) on March 14, 2024; the Mayor continues to be elected citywide every 4 years; Districts 2 and 4 were first elected under the new map in 2024, and Districts 1 and 3 follow in 2026, with elections thereafter every 4 years](https://www.mcfarlandcity.org/council-administration/city-clerk/2026-general-municipal-election/district-election-process/)
4. [City of McFarland's own Council Members roster page: Mayor Saul Ayon (term expires Nov. 2026, not seeking reelection per the certified candidate list); Maria Perez, District 1 (term expires Nov. 2026); Martin Gutierrez, District 2 (term expires Nov. 2026); Anita Gonzalez, District 3 (term expires Nov. 2026); and Ricardo Cano, Vice Mayor, District 4 (term expires Nov. 2028, not up this cycle)](https://www.mcfarlandcity.org/council-administration/city-council/council-members/)
5. [Wikipedia's McFarland, California article: population 14,161 (2020 census); a San Joaquin Valley city in Kern County, about 25 miles northwest of Bakersfield and 6.5 miles south of Delano; founded 1909, incorporated 1957](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McFarland,_California)
6. [A negative-result attempt to independently cross-check McFarland's contests against Kern County's own "Contest/Candidate Proof List": kernvote.com returned HTTP 403 ("Access Denied," a WAF block) for both the county's Nov. 3, 2026 general-election landing page and a previously-cited kernvote.com document URL, including a retry with TLS verification disabled to rule out an unrelated expired-certificate error the site also threw intermittently -- the same WAF pattern already documented this session for Tehachapi; no browser tool was reachable this run](https://kernvote.com/elections/upcoming-elections/november-3-2026-general-election)
7. [A negative-result campaign-finance check: California's Cal-Access filer database covers state-level contests only and this dataset's own cached statewide snapshot carries no filer under any of the four McFarland candidates' names; McFarland's own City Clerk page describes the office as the FPPC filing officer for Statements of Economic Interests only, with no online campaign Form 460/461 filing portal found](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Candidates/)

## The rest of the ballot

Mayor of McFarland 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, "Mayor of McFarland — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/mcfarland-mayor (sources last retrieved September 3, 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.