An election ballot asks voters to select six city commissioners from a group of seventeen candidates. In how many ways can this be done?

Step 1 ：This problem is about selecting a certain number of items from a larger group, which is a combination problem. In this case, we are selecting 6 city commissioners from a group of 17 candidates. The order in which we select the commissioners does not matter.

Step 2 ：We use the combination formula to solve this problem: \(C(n, k) = \frac{n!}{k!(n-k)!}\), where \(n\) is the total number of items, \(k\) is the number of items to choose, and \(!\) denotes factorial.

Step 3 ：In this problem, \(n = 17\) and \(k = 6\).

Step 4 ：Substitute \(n\) and \(k\) into the combination formula, we get \(C(17, 6) = \frac{17!}{6!(17-6)!}\).

Step 5 ：Calculate the factorial and simplify the expression, we get the number of ways to select six city commissioners from a group of seventeen candidates is 12376.

Step 6 ：Final Answer: \(\boxed{12376}\)