How to run for local office in Ohio: the 2027 guide

The short answer

To run for local office in Ohio in 2027, you collect signatures on a nominating petition from voters in your city, village, township or school district, and you file that petition with a nonrefundable fee of $30 to $80 at your county board of elections. Most township, school board and village candidates, and candidates in many cities, file by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 4, 2027, for the general election on Tuesday, November 2, 2027. Candidates in races that have a primary, mostly in cities, and municipal court candidates file much earlier: by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 3, 2027, for the primary on Tuesday, May 4, 2027.

Every local candidate in Ohio files a petition. There is no route onto the ballot that uses only a form or only a fee. The number of signatures depends on the office, and city charters can change both the number and the rules. This guide covers city, village, township, school board and educational service center races, from deciding to run through Election Day. The rules come from the Ohio Revised Code and the 2027 election schedules of the Franklin County Board of Elections, which we use as examples throughout. Confirm your exact signature number, your form and your deadline with your own county board of elections before you start.

If you plan to reach supporters by text once you are running, our page on texting for Midwest campaigns explains how the setup works.

The key dates at a glance.

The February 3 and August 4 deadlines are 90 days before the election, as state law sets them. Our Ohio 2027 local election calendar lists every date in order, including the absentee and write-in deadlines, and marks the ones we calculated from state law.

Step 1

Find your office and your filing season.

Ohio holds its regular municipal election in November of every odd-numbered year, so 2027 is the main year for local offices. The offices on the 2027 ballot include:

• City offices, such as mayor, council and other offices the city's charter or state law provides.
• Village offices, such as mayor and council.
• Township offices: one township trustee seat and the township fiscal officer in each township.
• School boards for city, local and exempted village school districts, and the governing boards of educational service centers (ESCs, the regional agencies that serve groups of school districts).
• Municipal court judges.

City or village

In Ohio, a municipality with a population of 5,000 or more at the last federal census is a city. Every other municipality is a village. The difference matters because state law sets different qualifications, council sizes and signature numbers for each, and because many cities have adopted a charter (the city's own governing document) that sets its own election rules.

Which filing season applies to you

Whether you file in February or August depends on how your community nominates candidates:

• Townships, and municipalities under 2,000 people, hold no primary unless a majority of their voters have petitioned for party primaries. Their candidates go straight to the November ballot by nominating petition, due August 4.
• School board and ESC candidates are nonpartisan, and most file for November, by August 4. A few districts hold a nonpartisan primary instead. In Franklin County, for example, Columbus City School District candidates file by February 3.
• Municipalities of 2,000 or more nominate the same way they did in 1989 unless their voters have changed the method. Some hold party primaries, some hold nonpartisan primaries under their charters, and many use petitions alone. If your city or village holds any primary, your deadline is February 3.

The only reliable way to know which applies to you is your county board of elections' 2027 schedule, which lists each office, its form, its signature range and its deadline. Franklin County's schedules, for example, list Columbus city races with a February 3 deadline and Bexley city races with an August 4 deadline.

We have a guide for each type of office: city council, mayor, village council, township trustee and school board.

Step 2

Check that you qualify.

On the statement of candidacy at the top of your petition, you declare, under penalty of election falsification, that you are an elector qualified to vote for the office you seek. In practice, that means you must be a registered voter who lives where you would serve. Ohio law adds rules for specific offices:

• City council (cities without a charter rule of their own): at-large members must have lived in the city, and ward members in their ward, for at least one year before the election. Members must be electors of the city and may not hold another public office (other than notary public or the state militia), have an interest in a city contract or work for the city.
• Village council and village mayor: one year of residence in the village before the election, and status as an elector of the village. Council members also may not hold another public office, have an interest in a village contract or work for the village, with narrow exceptions.
• City mayor: must be an elector of the city.
• School board: members must be electors living in the district.

Every elected local official must keep living in the community, or the ward or subdistrict they represent, for the whole term, or the office is forfeited. You also cannot file for two municipal, township or school offices at the same election.

Charter cities can set their own qualifications. If you live in a charter city, read the election section of the charter and ask the board of elections whether it adds any requirement. If you are unsure whether you qualify for any office, ask before you start collecting signatures.

Step 3

Know your signature number.

State law sets a minimum number of valid signatures for each office and, for most offices, a maximum of three times the minimum. A petition with more than the maximum is refused, so do not collect far beyond it.

Minor-party candidates in a party primary need half the number shown. Independent candidates in cities that hold a party primary use a different formula, based on the last vote for governor in their area.

Charters can change the numbers

Charter cities can set their own signature numbers and add rules. These examples come from the Franklin County 2027 schedules and show how far they can differ:

• Columbus: a mayoral candidate needs at least 1,000 signatures and a council candidate at least 250, due February 3. Each petition names a five-person nominating committee, and council petition signers must be registered in the district.
• Bexley: mayor and council candidates need 150 to 300, due August 4.
• Canal Winchester: 43 to 129, due August 4.
• Franklin County townships: 25 to 75. Franklin County villages such as Harrisburg and Lockbourne: 10 to 30.

These are examples only. Your own number comes from your county board of elections.

Step 4

Circulate your petition correctly.

A circulator is the person who collects signatures and witnesses each one. You may circulate your own petition. A few rules cause most problems:

• Sign the statement of candidacy first. It must be on each petition paper before anyone signs it. If you use several papers, you sign the statement on one, and it is copied onto the others.
• Signatures must be affixed in ink. Ohio does not accept electronic signatures on candidate petitions.
• Signers add the date and their voting address as it appears in their registration record. Only a person's first signature on your petition counts.
• Keep each paper to one county. If your district crosses a county line, use separate papers for each county.
• The circulator signs a statement on each paper, under penalty of election falsification, saying they witnessed every signature and giving the number of signatures on the paper. No notary is needed.
• Party primary petitions are circulated by the candidate or a member of the candidate's party, one circulator per paper.

There is no statewide date before which you may not collect signatures. A signer's qualification is judged as of the day you file, so a signer who moves away before then may not count. Some charters add a time limit. In Grandview Heights, for example, a signature dated more than 150 days before the general election is not valid. Ask your board whether your charter sets one.

Collect a comfortable margin above your minimum, because signatures from people who are not registered at the address they give, or who live outside the district, will be struck. For a line-by-line walkthrough of the form, the signature rules and the circulator's statement, see the Ohio nominating petition guide on Beacon, our canvassing app's site.

Step 5

File with your county board of elections.

You file your petition with the board of elections of your county. If your district covers more than one county, you file with the board of the county that holds the major portion of its population. ESC candidates file in the county where the ESC's central office is located.

You pay the filing fee when you file. It has two parts, a filing fee and an Ohio Election Integrity Commission fee, and it is never refunded:

What you file depends on your track:

• Nonpartisan candidates file the nominating petition with the signed statement of candidacy, by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 4, 2027, or by February 3 if your city holds a nonpartisan primary.
• Party primary candidates file a declaration of candidacy together with the petition, by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 3, 2027.
• Independent candidates for offices with a party primary file a statement of candidacy and nominating petition by 4 p.m. on the day before the primary. Franklin County's schedule shows 4 p.m. Monday, May 3, 2027 for this filing in Hilliard and Reynoldsburg.
• Write-in candidates file a declaration of intent by 4 p.m. on Monday, February 22, 2027 for the primary, or Monday, August 23, 2027 for the general election.

Do not wait until the last afternoon. File early enough that, if a problem appears, you have time to understand it.

Step 6

The May 4 primary, if your race has one.

Only some races have a May primary: cities that nominate by party primary, and charter cities that hold a nonpartisan primary. In Columbus, for example, the schedule notes that if no more than two candidates are certified for a contest, no primary is held for it. If your race does have a primary, your campaign runs on two clocks. For the May 4 primary, the Franklin County schedule shows voter registration closing at 9 p.m. on Monday, April 5, 2027, and in-person absentee voting opening Tuesday, April 6, 2027.

Primary winners move on to November. Everyone else in the primary track is finished for this cycle, so treat the spring as a full campaign of its own.

Step 7

Run the campaign to November 2.

Once your petition is filed, the work changes from paperwork to meeting voters. For August filers, that leaves about 13 weeks. Our campaign plan to November 2, 2027 breaks those weeks into stages, each with one main job.

Meet voters at the doors

For most local races, knocking on doors is the most direct way to meet voters. Start with a walk list (a list of registered voters in your district, sorted by address), focus first on people who vote in odd-year local elections, and write down what happened at each door so you can return to the people who were undecided. Petition circulation is a good time to start, since you are already walking the district.

Text the supporters who asked to hear from you

A signature on your nominating petition is not permission to text someone. The petition asks voters to nominate you; it does not ask whether they want campaign texts. Ask for that permission separately, in writing, and record the date. Then set up your texting in this order:

1. Confirm your committee's filing is online. Campaign Verify is the check, required for political texting, that confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that you are a real campaign. It is available to 527 committees (the federal tax status of a political committee) that have an EIN (the 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 who is eligible, and candidates with no committee are not.
2. Request Campaign Verify on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026. It costs $95 per two-year cycle. A request made on or after that date lasts until Wednesday, January 31, 2029, which covers your whole campaign. A request made earlier expires Sunday, January 31, 2027.
3. Open your CampaignCNX+ account and choose a number. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration for you, either 10DLC (the carrier registration for texting from a local-style number, a one-time $75 for your first local line) or toll-free, where the carrier review usually takes about three business days. You buy your Campaign Verify token from Campaign Verify, and CampaignCNX+ files it with your registration. 100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month.
4. Add only the people who agreed. Put them in a group, tag them by where they signed up (such as "doors" or "festival"), and use a custom field for the date of their permission.
5. Schedule your key texts. Write messages for the start of early voting and Election Day and schedule them to that group. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in each recipient's time zone, and STOP replies are handled automatically.

Our step-by-step guide to texting voters in an Ohio local race covers consent and setup in detail. For worked budgets, see what it costs to text a local race, and for the verification process itself, Campaign Verify for local candidates.

Plan for early voting and Election Day

The Franklin County schedule shows voter registration for November 2 closing at 9 p.m. on Monday, October 4, 2027, and in-person absentee voting opening on Tuesday, October 5, 2027. Based on state law, absentee ballot applications must reach the board of elections by the close of business on Tuesday, October 26, 2027. On Election Day, polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Point voters to the board of elections for applications, locations and hours. Ohio law forbids anyone other than the voter from filling out any part of a voter's absentee application, so do not fill one out for a supporter, even to help.

After the election.

Under the state's default rules, township trustees, school board members, mayors and city council members elected in 2027 take office on Saturday, January 1, 2028. The township fiscal officer's term begins on Saturday, April 1, 2028. Charter cities may set other dates, so ask your board of elections or city clerk when your term would begin.