To run for a New Jersey municipal council, you file a nominating petition signed by local voters, and the kind of petition depends on how your municipality holds its elections. In a municipality with partisan elections, Democratic and Republican candidates file a primary petition with the municipal clerk by 4 p.m. on Monday, March 29, 2027, compete in the primary on Tuesday, June 8, 2027, and face the general election on Tuesday, November 2, 2027 (all based on state law). In a municipality with nonpartisan May elections, every candidate files a petition of individual certificates with the municipal clerk by Thursday, February 25, 2027, for the election on Tuesday, May 11, 2027.
The number of signatures depends on the population of your municipality, or of your ward if the seat is elected by ward. It ranges from 5 in the smallest places to 100 in municipalities of more than 50,000 people. This guide covers both systems in order, using the election laws in Titles 19 and 40 of the New Jersey Statutes (N.J.S.A.) as amended in 2025. Confirm the details for your seat with your municipal clerk.
For the full picture of a 2027 race in New Jersey, including county and school board offices, see our guide to running for local office in New Jersey.
Step 1: Learn how your council is elected
The size of the council, its terms and its election timing come from your municipality's form of government. For example:
- Borough form: six council members elected at large for three-year terms, arranged so that two seats are elected every year, plus a mayor elected for four years. The election is held each November at the general election (N.J.S.A. 40A:60-2). A borough that already had wards keeps them.
- City form: six members elected from two wards for staggered three-year terms and one at large for four years, elected each November, unless the city kept an earlier arrangement (N.J.S.A. 40A:61-2).
- Optional Municipal Charter Law (Faulkner Act) plans: the plan the voters adopted sets the number of council members, whether they are elected by ward or at large, whether terms are staggered or concurrent, and whether elections are in May or November (N.J.S.A. 40:69A-14).
Then find out which election system applies. In a partisan municipality, council candidates of the parties that hold primaries (under current law, the Democratic and Republican parties) are chosen in June and elected in November. In a nonpartisan municipality governed by the Uniform Nonpartisan Elections Law, there is no primary: candidates file directly, and the election is held on the second Tuesday in May or, if the municipality chose it by ordinance, in November (N.J.S.A. 40:45-7; 40:45-7.1).
Ask your municipal clerk which system the municipality uses, which council seats are on the 2027 ballot, whether each seat is at large or by ward, which ward your home is in, and whether the municipality holds runoff elections.
Step 2: Check that you qualify
How a new number gets approved
- Open your account100 free SMS included
- Buy your number$5 a month. Nothing sends until the account has one.
- Verify your campaignCampaign Verify, $95 per two-year cycle. Needs your committee's EIN and filing.
- We file the registrationToll-free verification, or 10DLC for a local number ($75 one time)
- The carriers review itAbout three business days for a toll-free number
- Send your first textStart with a small test group
Be a resident and a legal voter. A primary candidate's acceptance certifies that the candidate is "a resident of and a legal voter in the jurisdiction of the office" (N.J.S.A. 19:23-15). On a nonpartisan petition, each signer certifies that they know the candidate to be a registered voter of the municipality, and of the ward for a ward seat, "for the period required by law" (N.J.S.A. 40:45-8). Ask your municipal clerk what period applies to your seat.
Pick one route and one office. In a partisan municipality, a person on the primary ballot for a municipal office cannot be another party's candidate for that office in November (N.J.S.A. 19:13-14.1), and a candidate who accepted a primary petition cannot also accept an independent petition for the same office (N.J.S.A. 19:13-8). In a nonpartisan election, no person may accept nomination for more than one municipal office (N.J.S.A. 40:45-11).
Step 3: Collect the signatures
Partisan municipalities: the primary petition
The minimum depends on the population of the municipality, or of the ward for a ward seat, at the last federal census (N.J.S.A. 19:23-8):
| Population of municipality or ward | Minimum signatures of party voters |
|---|---|
| More than 50,000 | 100 |
| More than 25,000, up to 50,000 | 75 |
| More than 10,000, up to 25,000 | 50 |
| More than 5,000, up to 10,000 | 25, or 5 percent of the party's last Assembly primary vote if less |
| More than 2,500, up to 5,000 | 10, or 5 percent if less |
| Up to 2,500 | 5, or 5 percent if less |
Signers are voters of your municipality or ward who are members of your party and intend to affiliate with it, and a member of one party may not sign another party's petition (N.J.S.A. 19:23-7; 19:23-10). Ask your municipal clerk how unaffiliated voters are treated. The circulator (the person who collects the signatures) must be a registered New Jersey voter of the same party and swears before a notary or other officer authorized to give oaths that each signature is in the signer's own handwriting (N.J.S.A. 19:23-11). You may sign and circulate your own petition.
Nonpartisan municipalities: individual certificates
A nonpartisan petition is a set of individual certificates, and each signature goes on its own sheet of paper with the signer's name and address (N.J.S.A. 40:45-8). The minimums follow the same population steps, without the 5 percent option: 100, 75, 50, 25, 10 or 5. Each signer is a registered voter of the municipality and certifies that they have not signed more certificates than there are seats to fill. For a ward seat, each signer must live in your ward and may sign only one ward certificate (N.J.S.A. 40:45-9). Your municipal clerk provides the certificate forms on request.
Collect a margin above your minimum in either system, because signatures from people outside your municipality or ward will not count. Beacon's guide to New Jersey nominating petitions covers both forms line by line, with advice on collecting signatures door to door.
Step 4: File with the municipal clerk
Partisan primary: file with your municipal clerk before 4 p.m. on Monday, March 29, 2027, the 71st day before the primary (based on state law, N.J.S.A. 19:23-6 and 19:23-14). Attach your signed acceptance with the oath of allegiance, taken before a notary or another officer authorized to give oaths. You may amend a defective petition, but not add signatures, until 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, and objections are due by 4 p.m. on Friday, April 2, 2027 (both based on state law).
Nonpartisan May election: file with your municipal clerk on or before Thursday, February 25, 2027, the 75th day before the election (based on state law, N.J.S.A. 40:45-8). The Division of Elections listed the matching 2026 deadline at 4 p.m., so ask your clerk for the closing hour. The candidate and the campaign manager each swear an oath, before an officer authorized to give oaths, that the statements are true and every signature is genuine. The candidate's signed oath is the acceptance of the nomination. Nonpartisan municipalities that vote in November file by Thursday, August 19, 2027 (based on state law).
Independent candidates in a partisan municipality file a petition for direct nomination with the county clerk by 4 p.m. on primary day, Tuesday, June 8, 2027 (N.J.S.A. 19:13-3; 19:13-9). The number is 5 percent of the last full General Assembly vote in the municipality, up to a maximum of 250. Ask the county clerk for your number.
Check with the Election Law Enforcement Commission for any other filings, and keep a copy of everything you file.
Step 5: Run the council campaign
In a partisan municipality, the primary campaign runs from the March 29 filing deadline to the June 8 primary. Voter registration closes on Tuesday, May 18, and early voting runs from Tuesday, June 1 to Sunday, June 6, 2027 (based on state law). In a May nonpartisan municipality, voter registration closes on Tuesday, April 20, and early voting is held only if the municipality adopted it by ordinance.
For a ward seat, most of the work is meeting voters at their doors. As an example only: if you and two volunteers each knock on 60 doors a week for eight weeks, the three of you would reach about 1,440 doors before the election. Set your own numbers from the size of your ward. For an at-large seat, plan for more volunteers and more events.
Step 6: Keep supporters informed by text
A short text at the right moment tells supporters when and where to vote. Set it up in CampaignCNX+ before early voting begins.
- Settle your committee first. Campaign Verify, the check that confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that you are a real campaign, needs a 527 committee (the federal tax status of a political committee) with an EIN (its federal tax ID number) and a filing with an election authority that is published online. Check that your filing is viewable online before you request it, and contact Campaign Verify Support if it is not. A request made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 lasts until January 31, 2029. It costs $95, and Campaign Verify decides eligibility.
- Open your account. 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.
- Add only supporters who agreed in writing, on a dated sign-up sheet that plainly says they agree to receive campaign texts. Signing your petition is not that permission.
- Schedule a reminder, addressed with the first-name merge field and ending with the opt-out line:
Hi [First name], this is [Name], running for [Town] Council. Early voting for the primary runs Jun 1 to 6. Reply STOP to opt out.
Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and STOP replies are handled automatically. 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 every campaign, see political texting. If you are also weighing a run for mayor, see running for mayor in New Jersey.
Get your petition in order early
Confirm your municipality's election system, your seat and your ward with the municipal clerk, get the current form, and start collecting signatures with time to spare. When you are ready to keep supporters informed by text, start a CampaignCNX+ trial.
