How to run for city council or school board in South Dakota (2027)

The short answer

To run for city council or school board in South Dakota in 2027, you sign a declaration of candidacy, collect signatures from registered voters on a nominating petition, and file that petition with the right office by 5 p.m. on the deadline. City candidates file with the municipal finance officer. School board candidates file with the school district business manager. There is no filing fee, and there is no way onto the ballot without a petition. Once the office verifies your petition, that filing is your nomination.

Your deadline depends on which election date your city or school district chose. For an election on Tuesday, June 8, 2027, petitions are due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16, 2027. For an election on Tuesday, November 2, 2027, petitions are due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 17, 2027. Both dates are based on state law.

South Dakota changed this calendar recently. A 2025 law (SL 2025, ch 40, effective January 1, 2026) moved city and school elections off the old April date to June or November, and a 2026 law (SL 2026, ch 35) changed the petition deadlines. The Secretary of State has not yet posted a 2027 city and school calendar, so every 2027 date in this guide is computed from the statutes and marked "based on state law." The Secretary of State's 2026 how-to guides and calendar show older dates, such as a March 24, 2026 petition deadline and a February 2 starting date for school petitions. Do not copy dates from them. Confirm every date with your city finance officer or your school district business manager before you rely on it.

If you plan to reach voters by text once you are on the ballot, our political texting guide explains the rules and the setup.

The key dates at a glance.

All dates below are based on state law. Your city or school district uses one column, not both.

School boards choose their date by resolution at their first regular meeting after January 1. For every date in the cycle, including withdrawal, absentee ballots and runoffs, see our South Dakota 2027 city and school election calendar.

Step 1

Find out whether your city or school district votes in 2027, and when.

Cities. Each city must hold an election of officers every year, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June or in November. The governing body picks one of the two by January 14 of the election year (Thursday, January 14, 2027), so in 2027 the choice is Tuesday, June 8 or Tuesday, November 2. A city may instead adopt an ordinance to elect only in even-numbered years, and such a city may have no regular election in 2027. If your city has a home rule charter, ask whether the charter changes any of the dates or rules in this guide.

School districts. Each school district holds an annual election on one of the same two dates. The school board chooses by resolution no later than its first regular meeting after January 1. In odd-numbered years such as 2027, a school district and a city may agree to hold their elections together.

The notice of open seats. The city finance officer publishes a notice in the city's official newspaper listing the open offices and where and when petitions may be filed. It runs once a week for two weeks, between Tuesday, December 15 and Wednesday, December 30, 2026 for a June 8 election, or between Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 30, 2027 for a November 2 election. The Secretary of State notes that a December notice may run before the election date is officially set. Read it closely. Some cities require candidates to run for a specific seat when more than one council seat is open.

City and school ballots in South Dakota do not carry party labels. Candidates are listed under the office they seek.

Step 2

Check that you qualify.

City offices. To hold elective city office, you must be a qualified voter of the city and must have lived in the city, or in an area annexed to it, for at least three months before the election. When you file, the finance officer verifies that you are a registered voter in the city, or in the ward if you are running for a ward seat.

School board. You must be a resident voter of the school district. The business manager verifies this when you file. Some districts are divided into school board representation areas, which changes who may sign your petition, so ask your business manager whether yours is.

If you are unsure about your registration or your address, check with your county auditor before you collect a single signature. If this is your first campaign, our guide to running for local office with no experience covers the decisions to make before you file.

Step 3

Know your signature number.

The number depends on the size of your city, or on the school district.

For example, a ward with 600 registered voters needs 30 signatures, because 5 percent of 600 is 30. A ward or city with 1,000 or more registered voters needs 50, because 50 is then the smaller number.

The 5 percent is based on the number of registered voters the county auditor recorded on the second Tuesday of the month five months before the election. For a June 8, 2027 election, that is Tuesday, January 12, 2027. For a November 2, 2027 election, it is Tuesday, June 8, 2027. Both dates are based on state law. Ask your finance officer for your exact number.

Collect more than the minimum. The finance officer or business manager checks each signer, and a signature from someone who is not registered in your city, ward or district does not count. Once the deadline passes, you cannot add signatures.

Step 4

Sign your declaration and circulate your petition.

Our guide to South Dakota nominating petitions for city and school board walks through the form line by line. The main rules are below.

• Use the current form. City petitions must be on the form prescribed by the State Board of Elections. Ask your finance officer or business manager for it.
• Sign the declaration of candidacy first. Sign it before anyone circulates the petition. The original signed declaration goes with the petition when you file.
• Wait for the window. A city petition may circulate no more than four months before the election, and a school petition from January 1 (June election) or June 1 (November election). The table above gives the 2027 dates. No one may sign before Friday, January 1, 2027.
• Choose circulators. A circulator is the person who collects the signatures. Circulators must be South Dakota residents age 18 or older, and they do not need to be registered voters. The Secretary of State says the circulator must personally witness each signature.
• Collect valid signatures. Signers must be registered voters entitled to vote for you. In first and second class cities, a voter may not sign for more candidates than there are seats to fill. Each signer, or the circulator, adds the address where the signer is registered to vote, the county and the date.
• Use paper. A nominating petition must be a self-contained sheet of paper.
• Verify each sheet. Each circulator verifies their sheets under oath. The Secretary of State says this is done before a South Dakota notary, and the candidate may not notarize their own petition.

Step 5

File by 5 p.m. on the deadline.

File your petition and your original signed declaration by 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday, March 16, 2027 (June election) or Tuesday, August 17, 2027 (November election), based on state law. City candidates file with the municipal finance officer, and school board candidates with the school district business manager. If you mail your petition, the Secretary of State says registered mail sent before 5 p.m. on the deadline counts as on time, and certified mail does not.

The finance officer or business manager verifies that your petition has enough valid signatures and that you qualify. Upon verification, the filing is your nomination.

Statement of financial interest. Candidates for council member, commissioner or mayor in a first class city, and school board candidates in a district with more than 2,000 students, also file a statement of financial interest with the same office within 15 days after filing the petition. This is a personal disclosure form, not a campaign report. The Secretary of State's 2026 calendar lists 18 first class cities, including Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Ask your filing officer whether the statement applies to you.

If you change your mind. A city candidate may withdraw by filing a written request under oath with the finance officer. To keep your name off the ballot, file it before 5 p.m. on the first Thursday after the petition deadline: Thursday, March 18, 2027 or Thursday, August 19, 2027, based on state law. School board candidates should ask their business manager about withdrawal.

Step 6

Know what happens after the deadline.

Uncontested races. If the number of candidates who file for each open seat does not exceed the number of seats, and no other question is on the ballot, no election is held, and the unopposed candidates receive certificates of election. This applies to a city or a ward, and to a school district. If other contests or questions remain on the ballot, ask your filing officer how your race will appear.

Ballot order. The finance officer or business manager decides the order of names by drawing lots. You, or someone representing you, may attend the drawing.

Winning. In a city election, the candidate with the most votes wins, unless the city adopted a runoff ordinance at least six months before the election. In those cities, if no candidate in a race of three or more receives a majority, the top two face a runoff three weeks later, on Tuesday, June 29, 2027 or Tuesday, November 23, 2027, based on state law. Ask your finance officer whether your city has one.

Step 7

Run the campaign.

Once your petition is filed, the work changes from paperwork to meeting voters.

Plan around registration and absentee voting

Voter registration closes at 5 p.m. 15 days before the election: Monday, May 24, 2027 for a June 8 election, or Monday, October 18, 2027 for a November 2 election. State law also requires absentee ballots for city and school elections to be available no later than 15 days before Election Day, which is those same Mondays. Absentee voting may open earlier than that, so ask your finance officer or business manager when it begins. On Election Day, the polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Knock on doors

Door knocking is one of the most direct ways to meet voters in a city or school district race, and it can begin while you are collecting signatures. Start from a list of registered voters organized by address, and record what happened at each door so you can return to the people who were undecided. Beacon, a door-to-door canvassing app, lets you draw turf (the areas each volunteer covers) on a map, assign it to volunteers, download walk lists in walking order by distance, and record a result at every door.

Text the people who asked to hear from you

Only people who agreed to receive your texts may be texted. The carriers (the mobile phone companies) require that opt-in for application-to-person texting, meaning texts sent through a texting service rather than typed one by one on a personal phone, and political texting is included.

1. Collect written permission. Signing your nominating petition is not permission to receive texts. Carry a separate sign-up sheet that says plainly what people are agreeing to, such as "Yes, text me updates from the Jordan Lee for City Council campaign. Reply STOP to opt out," with lines for the phone number and the date. A voter list, or a conversation at the door, is not consent unless the person also signs up in writing with the date recorded.
2. Check your committee filing, then request Campaign Verify. Campaign Verify confirms to the carriers that a political sender is a real campaign. It is available to a committee registered with an election authority, costs $95 per two-year cycle, and needs an EIN (the committee's federal tax ID number) and an election-authority filing that is published online. Candidates with no committee, and sole proprietors, are not eligible. Check that your local committee filing can be viewed online before you request it, and ask Campaign Verify Support if it cannot. Campaign Verify decides eligibility. Requests made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 last until January 31, 2029.
3. Open your CampaignCNX+ account. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration, either 10DLC (the carrier registration for texting from a local-style number) or toll-free. You buy the $95 token from Campaign Verify, and CampaignCNX+ files it with the registration. 100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month.
4. Send only to opted-in contacts, within quiet hours. Record each person's consent date and source in a custom field. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and STOP, HELP and START replies are handled automatically.

Our guide to texting voters in a South Dakota local race covers each step with sample messages. For the verification process, see Campaign Verify for local candidates, and for other states in the region, our Midwest texting page.