How to run for local office

More than you would guess, and the list differs by state. Commonly elected at county level: commissioners or a county council, sheriff, clerk, auditor, treasurer, recorder, assessor, coroner, surveyor, and in many states some judges and the prosecutor. At municipal level: mayor, city or town council, clerk. Separately elected in most places: school board, and where townships function, township trustee and township board.

Some of these are full-time jobs with real staff. Many are part-time, meet monthly or twice monthly, and pay a small stipend or nothing. A school board seat is typically unpaid or nearly so.

Ballots differ in a way worth knowing before you start. Some of these seats are partisan, meaning you run in a party primary and appear with a party label. Others, school board most often, are nonpartisan. Which applies is set by your state and sometimes by your municipality's own charter.

The specific requirements are your state's and this guide will not invent a national version of them. What follows is the shape they take almost everywhere, so you know what to ask for.

There is a filing window: a date it opens and a date it closes. The closing date is absolute and it is the single most common way a candidacy ends before it begins. It is often months before the election and frequently in the winter for a November ballot.

There is a document, usually called a declaration or a statement of candidacy, filed with a named office. For county and municipal seats that is generally the county election board, county clerk or election commission. For state and federal seats it is generally the secretary of state.

There may be a filing fee, petition signatures from registered voters in the district, or a choice between the two. Where signatures are required the number is set by statute and there is a deadline for gathering them.

There are eligibility requirements: residency in the district for some period, voter registration, minimum age, and for some offices professional qualifications. There are also campaign finance filings, which usually begin as soon as you accept or spend money, sometimes at a low threshold, and continue after the election whether you win or lose.

Ask the election office directly. They deal with candidates constantly, the questions are routine to them, and a fifteen minute phone call will tell you more accurately what you need than any general guide including this one.

The meetings are the smallest part. A county council or school board seat usually means one or two public meetings a month, plus committee or work sessions, plus the reading. The reading is the real load: agenda packets can run to hundreds of pages and arrive a few days before the vote.

Terms are commonly two or four years, and staggered so that only some seats are up at once. Check which seats are actually on the ballot in the cycle you are considering, because the seat you want may not be up for another two years.

You become a public figure locally. Your votes are recorded, your contact details are typically public, people will approach you in the grocery store, and in most states your campaign finance reports and any required ethics or financial disclosure filings are public records.

And the seats are often uncontested. In many counties a local seat draws one candidate or none, and a vacancy with no candidate is filled by appointment rather than by voters. Whatever you think about that, it is the practical situation, and it means the barrier to entry for a person willing to do the reading is lower than almost anyone assumes.