# Santa Barbara County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 Compare records and positions simply between Sally E. Lopez and 1 more for Santa Barbara County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of seven seats on Santa Barbara's County Board of Education. The board sets policy for the County Education Office. That office runs special and alternative education programs and supports local school districts. It also hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals, and the term is four years. - Jurisdiction: School District - 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/santa-barbara-boe-area-7 - 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 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Sally E. Lopez** — Business Development Manager - **Vedamarie Alvarez Flores** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Santa Barbara County's Board of Education has a contested race for its Trustee Area 7 seat on November 3, 2026: incumbent Vedamarie Alvarez Flores, the board's vice president, faces challenger Sally E. Lopez -- who also applied for this same seat's December 2023 provisional appointment, which went to Alvarez Flores instead. The winner serves a 4-year term on the county's 7-member Board of Education. It is one of seven trustee areas. The board sets policy for the County Education Office. That office runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs. It supports local school districts. It also hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals. Area 7 covers significant portions of the City of Santa Maria. The choice is between an appointed incumbent and a challenger passed over for this same seat's 2023 appointment. Alvarez Flores is seeking her first elected term. It is a rematch of sorts. This time voters decide it, not the board itself. ## Vedamarie Alvarez Flores Vedamarie Alvarez Flores is the incumbent Area 7 trustee and the board's vice president, appointed to the seat in 2024 after a term on the Santa Maria-Bonita School District board. She's a retired Santa Maria elementary school teacher and longtime teacher trainer. A Santa Maria native, she says she's running to continue what she calls "the meaningful journey" of helping local students and schools. **Strengths:** A full career as a Santa Maria educator and teacher trainer, prior elected service on the Santa Maria-Bonita school board, and the county board's vice presidency. **Trade-offs:** First elected to this seat only by appointment, not yet by a public vote; no campaign-finance committee at all is registered under her name with the state. **Keep in mind:** Unlike fellow incumbent Judy Frost, she has no active 2026 committee on file; no independent news coverage of her specific board votes surfaced in this pass. ## Sally E. Lopez Sally E. Lopez is a Santa Maria business development manager challenging incumbent Vedamarie Alvarez Flores for the Area 7 seat. They previously applied for this same seat's December 2023 provisional appointment, which ultimately went to Alvarez Flores. No campaign website, public platform statement, or news coverage of their 2026 candidacy was found in this pass. **Strengths:** A "Business Development Manager" ballot designation and a documented 2023 interest in this same seat, via the county's own appointment-interview record. **Trade-offs:** No campaign website, public statement, or news coverage of their 2026 candidacy was found in this pass; no state campaign-finance committee is on file under their name. **Keep in mind:** Beyond their 2023 appointment application and their 2026 ballot designation, this dataset found no independent information about their background or priorities -- an absence, not a judgment. ## Sources 1. [Santa Barbara County Elections Division -- "Qualified Off Ballot Contest/Candidate List for Schools and Special Districts, November 3, 2026 General Election" (CFMR001, printed 8/17/26): County Board of Education Trustee Area 1 shows exactly one qualified candidate, incumbent Marybeth Carty, and is marked NOT ON BALLOT -- filled by acclamation, not decided by voters this cycle. Trustee Areas 5 and 7 do not appear anywhere in this off-ballot document](https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/68de6016-df0c-423c-85f5-d67e98023e7a) 2. [Santa Barbara County Elections Division -- "Qualified On Ballot Contest/Candidate List for Schools and Special Districts, November 3, 2026 General Election" (CFMR001): County Board of Education Trustee Area 5 shows two qualified candidates -- incumbent Judith Ann Frost (Judy Frost) and Griselda M. Ruiz ("Business Owner/Mom") -- and Trustee Area 7 shows two -- incumbent Vedamarie (AIL) Alvarez-Flores and Sally E. Lopez ("Business Development Manager") -- both ON BALLOT](https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/1c1115e9-7446-48b3-9cea-5ad1eb88b2e6) 3. [Santa Barbara County Education Office -- "Board Members & Area Maps": the county Board of Education's own page, naming each of the seven trustee-area members and their year elected/appointed and term-expiration year -- Marybeth Carty (Area 1, elected 2013, term expires 2026), Judy Frost (Area 5, elected 2018, term expires 2026), and Vedamarie Alvarez Flores (Area 7, Board Vice President, appointed 2024, term expires 2026) among them](https://www.sbceo.org/about/board/board-members-area-maps) 4. [Santa Barbara County Education Office -- Vedamarie Alvarez Flores board-member bio: Board Vice President, Trustee Area 7 (significant portions of the City of Santa Maria); a retired Santa Maria elementary school teacher and longtime teacher trainer who served a four-year term on the Santa Maria-Bonita School District board before her 2024 provisional appointment to this seat](https://www.sbceo.org/about/board/board-members-area-maps/veda-alvarez-flores) 5. [Santa Barbara County Education Office -- "Interview Questions for Candidates for Provisional Appointment to the Santa Barbara County Board of Education" (Dec. 19, 2023): lists "Sally Lopez, Business Development" among the applicants interviewed for the same Trustee Area 7 vacancy that year (Vedamarie Alvarez Flores was ultimately appointed) -- read from a search-engine snippet of the document after the PDF itself would not render; her 2026 ballot designation ("Business Development Manager") is consistent with this 2023 record](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Sally+Lopez%22+%22Santa+Barbara+County+Board+of+Education%22+candidate) 6. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Alvarez Flores": no results -- no campaign committee registered with the state under her name](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Alvarez%20Flores) 7. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Sally Lopez": no results -- no campaign committee registered with the state under her name](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Sally%20Lopez) 8. [Santa Barbara County -- "Candidate Filing Information for November 3, 2026 General Election": the county's own 'Offices to be Filled' table lists Board of Supervisors, 5th District and County Board of Education Trustee Areas 1, 5, and 7 as the four county-section seats with terms expiring this cycle -- confirming which seats are up, not who filed or whether each reaches the ballot](https://www.countyofsb.org/acr-elections-candidate-filing-information-for-november-3-2026-general-election) ## The rest of the ballot Santa Barbara County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 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, "Santa Barbara County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-barbara-boe-area-7 (sources last retrieved September 7, 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.