This plan is for candidates for parish office or the Legislature in Louisiana's primary on Saturday, October 9, 2027: sheriff, clerk of court, assessor, coroner, police jury, parish council, parish president, state representative and state senator. It runs in seven phases. You prepare from November 2026 through February 2027, build your team in March, collect nominating petition signatures or knock on doors from Monday, April 5 to Tuesday, July 6, qualify with the clerk of court from Tuesday, August 3 to Thursday, August 5, campaign through the registration deadlines in September, and work the early voting period from Saturday, September 25 to Saturday, October 2. Then comes primary day.
The election dates come from the Louisiana Secretary of State's schedule of 2027 elections, revised in October 2026, which notes that the Legislature can change them. Door counts, volunteer numbers and weekly goals are examples only, so set your own from the size of your district and the time you have. Our guide to running for local office in Louisiana explains each office's rules.
The dates this plan is built on
- Sunday, November 15, 2026: Campaign Verify requests made on or after this date last until January 31, 2029.
- Monday, April 5, 2027: first day to collect nominating petition signatures.
- Tuesday, July 6, 2027: last day to submit a nominating petition to the registrar of voters.
- Tuesday, August 3 to Thursday, August 5, 2027, 4:30 p.m.: qualifying with the parish clerk of court.
- Thursday, August 12, 2027, 4:30 p.m.: deadline for a court action objecting to a candidacy (based on R.S. 18:1405).
- Wednesday, September 8, 2027: registration deadline in person or by mail.
- Saturday, September 18, 2027: online registration deadline.
- Saturday, September 25 to Saturday, October 2, 2027: early voting, Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, October 5, 2027: deadline to request a mail ballot from the registrar of voters.
- Saturday, October 9, 2027: primary day; polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Our Louisiana 2027 election calendar lists every date, including the November 20 general election.
Phase 1: Prepare (November 2026 to February 2027)
Use the winter to remove every obstacle to qualifying and to set up the campaign's basic tools.
- November. Confirm that you are registered to vote at your current address, and check your office's residency and domicile rule. For sheriff, clerk of court and assessor, you must have lived in Louisiana for the preceding two years and been domiciled in the parish for the preceding year when you file (R.S. 18:451.2). For the Legislature, the domicile year is counted in the legislative district (La. Const. Art. III, Sec. 4(A)).
- December. Ask your parish clerk of court which seats will be on your ballot and which district you live in. Form your campaign committee and get an EIN (the committee's federal tax ID number) if you plan to text supporters, and check with the Louisiana Board of Ethics for any other filings that apply to your campaign.
- January. Write a short statement of why you are running and what you would do in the office. As an example, list 50 people you know personally who might help, sign a petition, volunteer or host a coffee.
- February. Decide between the qualifying fee and a nominating petition. A petition replaces the fee (R.S. 18:461(A)(1)). For example, sheriff requires $225 plus a $25 sign recycling fee or 400 signatures, and a police jury district seat requires $115 plus $25 or 100 signatures. Ask your clerk of court for the exact numbers for your office.
Phase 2: Build your team (March 2027)
- Recruit. Ask two or three people to help with doors on weekends, and one person to keep your lists in order.
- Plan your areas. Ask your registrar of voters how to obtain a list of registered voters in your district, and divide the district into areas small enough for one evening or one weekend morning. If several volunteers help, Beacon, a door-to-door canvassing app, lets you draw those areas as turf on a map, assign each to a volunteer, give them walk lists ordered by distance, and record a result at each door, such as contacted, not home or come back later.
- Prepare your paperwork. If you will use a petition, print the Secretary of State's form NP-44-OES and fill in the cover page: the October 9 primary date, the August 3 to 5 qualifying period, the office, your name, domicile address and party. Print a separate sign-up sheet that plainly asks whether the person agrees to receive campaign texts, with a place for the date.
Phase 3: Signatures and doors (April 5 to July 6, 2027)
These 13 weeks are the main door-knocking period of the year.
- If you use a petition, start on Monday, April 5. Signatures dated earlier are not timely (R.S. 18:465(B)). Each signer must be registered to vote on the office, and each signature must be dated and witnessed by you or the person who collected it (R.S. 18:465(D)). Keep each parish's signers on separate pages if your district crosses parish lines.
- Set a weekly goal. As an example only: a candidate and three volunteers who each collect 15 signatures a week would gather about 600 in 10 weeks, which is a margin above a 400-signature requirement.
- Submit early. Take the petition to the registrar of voters in each parish where your signers live well before Tuesday, July 6. The registrar certifies petitions in the order received, and supplemental pages are certified in the order they arrive, so an early submission leaves time to fill a shortfall before the deadline.
- If you pay the fee instead, use the same weeks to visit doors in every part of your district, and collect sign-ups for texts as you go.
Phase 4: Qualify (July 7 to August 12, 2027)
- Late July. Pick up the notice of candidacy from your clerk of court. Choose your ballot name within the rules (no title or occupational description), and line up a notary or two witnesses for your signature (R.S. 18:463).
- Week of August 2. Qualify early in the window, on Tuesday, August 3 or Wednesday, August 4, with the clerk of court for the parish in which you are registered to vote. Bring a valid Louisiana driver's license or identification card, and either your certified petition or the fee in cash, a certified or cashier's check on a state or national bank or credit union, a U.S. postal money order, or a money order issued by a state or national bank or credit union. Qualifying closes at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 5.
- Week of August 9. A court action objecting to a candidacy must be filed by 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 12, 2027 (R.S. 18:1405(A)). Keep copies of everything you filed. If no one else qualified for your seat, you are declared elected and your name does not appear on the ballot (R.S. 18:511(B)).
Phase 5: The main campaign (August 13 to September 24, 2027)
- Return to undecided households from the spring and summer.
- Push registration. Remind supporters who have moved that registration closes on Wednesday, September 8 in person or by mail, and on Saturday, September 18 online.
- Mind the sign rule. Your notice of candidacy certified that you know the prohibitions on campaign signs on a highway right-of-way, publicly owned property or a utility pole (R.S. 18:463(A)(3)). Place signs only on private property with the owner's permission.
Phase 6: Early voting (September 25 to October 8, 2027)
- Saturday, September 25. Early voting opens. It runs Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the registrar's office or other locations the registrar sets (R.S. 18:1309), so there is no early voting on Sunday, September 26. Confirm your parish's locations before you tell supporters where to go.
- Saturday, October 2. Early voting ends.
- Tuesday, October 5. Last day to request a mail ballot from the registrar of voters. Voted mail ballots must reach the registrar by Friday, October 8.
- The final week. Confirm your volunteer schedule for primary day, and keep knocking on doors of supporters who have not yet voted.
Text your supporters during early voting
The early voting week is when a reminder helps most. Set up texting in CampaignCNX+ by early summer, so that it is ready by September 25.
- Committee and Campaign Verify. Campaign Verify confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that a political sender is a real campaign. It needs a 527 committee (the federal tax status of a political committee) with an EIN and a filing with an election authority that is published online. Check that your committee's filing can be viewed online before you request Campaign Verify, and ask Campaign Verify Support if it cannot. It costs $95, a request made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 lasts until January 31, 2029, and Campaign Verify decides eligibility.
- Registration. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration, as 10DLC (the registration for texting from a standard local-style number) or toll-free, and files your Campaign Verify token with it. For a toll-free number, the carrier review usually takes about three business days.
- Your supporter group. Add only the people who agreed in writing on your sign-up sheets, and record the consent date and source in a custom field. Petition signers who did not separately agree are not on this list.
- Scheduled reminders. Schedule texts for September 18, September 25 and October 9. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and STOP replies are handled automatically. For example:
Hi [First name], it's [Name], running for [Office]. Early voting is open now through Sat, Oct 2. Reply STOP to opt out.
Today is the primary. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thank you for your support. [Name]
100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month. For more wording, see our campaign text templates for local races, and for texting rules that apply to any campaign, see our page on political texting.
Phase 7: Primary day and after
- Saturday, October 9. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (R.S. 18:541). Thank your volunteers by name.
- The week after. A candidate who received a majority of the votes cast is elected (R.S. 18:511(A)). Otherwise, the two candidates with the most votes for a single seat go on to the general election on Saturday, November 20, 2027. For that election, online registration closes on Saturday, October 30, early voting runs from Friday, November 5 to Saturday, November 13, and the deadline to request a mail ballot is Tuesday, November 16.
Begin this month
Confirming your registration, domicile and paperwork this winter leaves the summer free for campaigning. Start Phase 1 now. When you are ready to keep your supporters informed through early voting, start a CampaignCNX+ trial.
