To run for city council in Ohio, you file a nominating petition signed by voters in your city, or in your ward if you are running for a ward seat, with your county board of elections, and you pay a $45 filing fee. Under state law, a nonpartisan council candidate needs at least 50 valid signatures, but many city charters set a different number. Your deadline is 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 4, 2027 if your city nominates by petition alone, or 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 3, 2027 if your city holds a primary. The general election is Tuesday, November 2, 2027.
Before you collect a single signature, find out three things: whether your city follows state law or its own charter, whether your seat is elected by ward or at large, and which deadline applies. This guide walks through each one. For the full process across every local office, see our guide to running for local office in Ohio.
Step 1: Find out how your city elects its council
In Ohio, a municipality with 5,000 or more people at the last federal census is a city. If your community is smaller, it is a village, and our guide to village council covers your race instead.
Statutory cities and charter cities
Cities without a charter follow the Ohio Revised Code. Under state law:
- Council size. The council has at least seven members by default: four elected by wards and three elected at large (by voters of the whole city). Larger cities have more ward members, up to 17 members in total. Voters may also approve a different plan of 5 to 17 members.
- Terms. Each ward seat and each at-large seat is filled in every odd-numbered year, for a two-year term that begins January 1 after the election. Voters may change the terms to four years, including staggered four-year terms.
Many Ohio cities have adopted a charter, the city's own governing document, which can set a different council size, different terms and its own election rules. If your city has a charter, read its sections on council and elections before you go further.
How candidates are nominated
Cities nominate council candidates in one of three ways:
- Petition only. Candidates file a nominating petition by August 4 and go straight to the November ballot.
- Party primary. Candidates file a declaration of candidacy and petition by February 3, and party nominees are chosen at the primary on Tuesday, May 4, 2027.
- Nonpartisan primary. Some charter cities hold a primary without party labels, with petitions due February 3.
A city of 2,000 or more nominates the way it did in 1989 unless its voters changed the method. The simplest way to find out is to look up your city on your county board of elections' 2027 schedule, which lists each office, its form, its signature range and its deadline.
Step 2: Check that you qualify
Under state law, a council candidate in a statutory city must:
- Have lived in the city for at least one year immediately before the election, if running at large, or in the ward for at least one year, if running for a ward seat.
- Be an elector of the city, meaning a voter qualified to vote there.
- Hold no other public office, other than notary public or member of the state militia.
- Have no interest in any contract with the city and not be employed by the city.
A council member who stops meeting these rules, or who moves out of the ward or city, forfeits the office. When you sign the statement of candidacy on your petition, you declare under penalty of election falsification that you are an elector qualified to vote for the office. You also cannot file for two municipal, township or school offices at the same election.
Charter cities may set their own qualifications, so check your charter. If anything about your eligibility is unclear, ask your board of elections before you start.
Step 3: Know your signature number
| Situation (state law) | Minimum signatures | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan, city of 2,000 or more, at-large seat | 50 voters of the city | 150 |
| Nonpartisan, ward seat | 50 voters of the ward | 150 |
| Party primary, at-large seat | 50 voters of your party | 150 |
| Party primary, ward seat | 25 voters of your party | 75 |
A petition with more than three times the minimum is refused. Minor-party candidates in a party primary need half the number shown. In a party primary, a signer or circulator counts as a member of your party if they voted in that party's primary within the preceding two calendar years, or voted in no other party's primary in that time.
Charter examples from Franklin County
These examples, from the Franklin County Board of Elections 2027 schedules, show how much charters can change the numbers. They are examples only:
- Columbus: council candidates need at least 250 signatures from voters registered in the council district, due February 3, and each petition names a five-person nominating committee.
- Bexley: 150 to 300, due August 4.
- Canal Winchester: 43 to 129, due August 4.
- Dublin, Groveport and Upper Arlington: 50 to 150, due August 4.
- Hilliard, which holds a party primary for council: 50 to 150 for a major-party candidate and 25 to 75 for a minor-party candidate, due February 3.
Your own number comes from your county board of elections. Collect a margin above the minimum, because signatures from people who are not registered at the address they give, or who live outside your ward, will be struck. Signatures must be affixed in ink, and the circulator (the person who collects the signatures) signs a statement on each paper saying they witnessed every one. For a full walkthrough of the form, see the Ohio nominating petition guide on Beacon, our canvassing app's site.
Step 4: File with your county board of elections
File your petition with the board of elections of your county. If your city crosses a county line, file with the board of the county that holds the major portion of the city's population. Pay the $45 fee when you file ($20 filing fee plus a $25 Ohio Election Integrity Commission fee). The fee is not refunded.
- Petition-only cities: 4 p.m. Wednesday, August 4, 2027.
- Cities with a primary: 4 p.m. Wednesday, February 3, 2027.
- Independent candidates in cities with a party primary file a statement of candidacy and petition by 4 p.m. on the day before the primary. Franklin County's schedule shows 4 p.m. Monday, May 3, 2027 for Hilliard and Reynoldsburg.
- Write-in candidates file a declaration of intent by 4 p.m. Monday, February 22, 2027 for the primary, or Monday, August 23, 2027 for the general election.
Some primaries do not happen. In Hilliard, the schedule notes that no primary is needed when a party's candidates do not outnumber the seats. In Columbus, no primary is held for a contest with no more than two certified candidates. Our Ohio 2027 local election calendar lists every deadline in order.
Step 5: Plan your campaign around your seat
A ward seat and an at-large seat call for different plans.
Ward seats cover a small part of the city. A candidate can often knock on the door of every household that votes in local elections, more than once. Start during petition circulation, since you are already walking the ward, and keep notes on who was undecided so you can return.
At-large seats cover the whole city. You will meet fewer voters in person, so recruit volunteers early, ask supporters to host small gatherings in their neighborhoods, and choose the parts of the city where turnout in odd-year elections is highest.
In either case, plan around the fall voting dates. The Franklin County schedule shows voter registration closing at 9 p.m. on Monday, October 4, 2027 and early voting opening on Tuesday, October 5, 2027. If you are also considering the mayor's race, compare the two in our guide on how to run for mayor in Ohio.
Step 6: Build a supporter text list by ward in CampaignCNX+
Council races are won by small margins, so the supporters you meet at the doors are worth keeping in touch with. Only text people who agreed in writing to receive texts from your campaign. Signing your petition is not that agreement, so carry a separate sign-up sheet that says plainly what people are agreeing to, and record the date.
- Check your committee's filing first. Campaign Verify, the check that confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that you are a real campaign, needs an EIN (your committee's federal tax ID number) and a filing with an election authority that is published online. Ask your county board of elections whether your committee's filing can be viewed online. If it cannot, ask Campaign Verify Support how to proceed before you apply. Campaign Verify decides eligibility. A request made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 lasts until Wednesday, January 31, 2029.
- Open your CampaignCNX+ account. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration, and files your Campaign Verify token with it once you buy the token from Campaign Verify. 100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month.
- Tag each supporter by ward and source. Add the people who agreed to texts to a group, tag them by ward and by where they signed up (such as "Ward 2 doors"), and record the date of their permission in a custom field.
- Send a welcome text using a merge field. Merge fields put each person's first name into the message. Keep it short and include the opt-out line:
Hi [First name], thanks for signing up with [Name] for Council. I'll text a few updates before Nov 2. Reply STOP to opt out.
- Schedule inside quiet hours. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in each recipient's time zone, and STOP replies are handled automatically.
For more on how texting works for local campaigns in the region, see our page on texting for Midwest campaigns.
Start with the schedule, then the signatures
Look up your city on your county board of elections' 2027 schedule this week, so you know your deadline and your number before you print a petition. Then set up the texting side while you circulate. Start your CampaignCNX+ trial once your committee is in place.
