Campaign Election Timeline: Key Dates Every Candidate Needs to Know

The four dates that define your campaign

You need all four of these dates before you can plan anything else with confidence. The most urgent is the filing deadline – it is the only date on this list that, if missed, ends your campaign entirely. Find it first.

The filing deadline

The filing deadline is the date by which you must submit your paperwork – typically a declaration of candidacy and, in many jurisdictions, a filing fee or a minimum number of nominating petition signatures – to officially appear on the ballot. It is set by state or local law and varies significantly by office and jurisdiction.

Filing requirements vary considerably. Depending on your race, you may need to:

• Submit a declaration of candidacy form to your local elections office
• Collect and submit nominating petition signatures (the number varies by office and jurisdiction)
• Pay a filing fee (some jurisdictions require this; others do not)
• File disclosure paperwork with your state or local ethics commission
• Register as a candidate with your state campaign finance authority

Start this process well in advance of the deadline, because gathering petition signatures takes time, and you don't want to discover a requirement you weren't expecting with a week to spare.

How to find your filing deadline

If the office you plan to run for is listed on RunForOffice.org, you can find the filing deadline right here.

Otherwise, contact your local elections office directly – the Board of Elections, County Clerk, or Registrar of Voters, depending on your state. Most states also publish filing deadlines on their official state election authority website. Your state's Secretary of State office is often the right starting point if you're unsure where to look.

Primary day

A primary is a preliminary election that determines which candidates advance to the general election. Not all local races have primaries – many non-partisan local offices go straight to a general election, or use a top-two system where the two highest vote-getters in an initial election advance to a runoff.

If your race does have a primary, treat it as a separate campaign with its own contact plan and its own GOTV operation. The vote goal formula applies equally to a primary: you need to calculate how many votes it takes to advance, build a universe of likely primary voters, and execute a contact plan sized to that universe.

Primary turnout is typically much lower than general election turnout – often dramatically so in local races. This cuts both ways: the absolute number of votes you need to win is lower, but the pool of voters participating is smaller and more engaged, which means your opponents' supporters are also more likely to show up.

Partisan vs. non-partisan primaries

In a partisan primary, you run to be the official nominee of a political party. Independent candidates typically don't participate in these primaries – just the general election.

Partisan primaries are sometimes "closed," meaning only registered voters affiliated with your party can vote for you. Your universe is narrower, your outreach is more targeted, and your messaging can be more specific to your party's values and priorities.

Sometimes, though, partisan primaries are partially or fully "open." In a partially open primary, unaffiliated voters can also participate in the primary of their choice, and in a fully open primary, even voters from other parties can participate.

In a non-partisan primary (common for city councils, school boards, and judicial races), any registered voter can participate. Your targeting logic shifts: party registration is less useful as a filter, and vote history in comparable non-partisan elections becomes more important.

Early voting and vote-by-mail

In most states, a significant share of votes are now cast before election day – through in-person early voting, absentee ballots, or vote-by-mail programs. In some jurisdictions, more than half of all ballots are cast before election day itself.

This changes how campaigns think about GOTV. A GOTV operation that concentrates entirely on election day is leaving votes on the table. An effective modern GOTV operation:

• Tracks which supporters have already voted as early voting proceeds (where legally permitted and practically feasible)
• Targets outreach during the early voting window to supporters who prefer to vote early or may have difficulty voting on election day specifically
• Concentrates remaining efforts on election day on supporters who haven't yet cast a ballot

Early voting rules vary significantly by state and sometimes by county. Some states have early voting windows of two weeks or more; others have limited or no in-person early voting. Check your state's rules and factor the early voting window into your GOTV planning.

Vote-by-mail

In states with vote-by-mail programs – either universal mail ballots or easy absentee access – your GOTV operation needs to account for ballot request deadlines. If a supporter needs to request a mail ballot, they need to do so before the request deadline, not just before election day. Add the ballot request deadline to your campaign calendar and build a reminder step into your GOTV outreach for supporters who plan to vote by mail.

Election day

Election day is the fixed endpoint that every other date on your campaign calendar is derived from. Once you know it, you can work backward to set every other milestone: your GOTV start date, your persuasion start date, your volunteer recruitment deadline, and your campaign launch date.

A few things worth knowing about election day timing for local races:

Election year type matters for turnout

The type of year your election falls in has a major effect on how many people show up – and therefore on your vote goal and the size of your voter universe.

• Presidential years (2024, 2028): Highest turnout. Down-ballot local races benefit from federal-level mobilization, but competition for voter attention is also highest.
• Mid-term Congressional election years (2026, 2030): Still significant turnout, especially if there's a major statewide election for Governor or US Senate as well. Without a major top-of-ticket candidate, turnout may depend on the competitiveness of US House races.
• Odd years with a gubernatorial election (NJ, KY, LA, MS, VA): Moderate-to-high turnout depending on how competitive the top-of-ticket race is. Local candidates can benefit from party infrastructure and voter contact.
• Odd years with no major statewide race: Lowest turnout. Your race may effectively be the top of the ticket. Voter contact and mobilization matter more than in high-turnout years because there's no other campaign generating enthusiasm or door-knocking on your behalf.

When you calculate your vote goal, match your projected turnout to the same type of election year as the one you're running in. Comparing an off-year election to a presidential year will produce a badly distorted projection.

Local elections on odd or spring calendars

Many city and municipal elections are deliberately scheduled off the standard November calendar – sometimes in spring, sometimes in odd years – a schedule that creates low turnout and typically favors organized, well-funded incumbents. As a challenger or first-time candidate, this cuts against you: your supporters are less likely to know when the election is, and turnout-depressing factors hit grassroots campaigns harder than established ones.

This makes voter education about the election date itself part of your campaign. "The election is April 12th – mark your calendar" is a legitimate message that belongs in your outreach, not just your ads.

Building your campaign calendar around key dates

With your four key dates in hand, here's how to construct the rest of your campaign calendar. Work backward from election day.

• Election day minus 0–4 weeks: GOTV phase. All volunteer energy shifts to turning out identified supporters. Final door knocks, reminder calls and texts, election day coordination.
• Election day minus 4–12 weeks: Persuasion phase. Repeat contact with undecided voters. Continue ID on anyone not yet contacted.
• Election day minus 12+ weeks: Launch and ID phase. Build volunteer base. Work through voter universe to identify supporters.
• Before launch: Confirm you've filed. Have your voter file or a plan to get it. Know your vote goal. Have your first volunteers identified.

If your race has a primary, layer a second, compressed version of this calendar on top – running from shortly after filing through primary day. Primary campaigns are often shorter and more resource-constrained, but the logic is the same: ID, persuade, turn out.

Now take one more pass through, identifying holidays and significant events in your community that will either limit your ability to reach voters or give you a chance to reach many of them at once. Is the state fair coming to town in September? Does your town have a big Fourth of July parade? Mark them on your calendar.

Next steps

Once you have your four key dates and a campaign calendar built around them:

• Calculate your vote goal – using historical turnout data from the same type of election year as yours
• Build your contact plan – setting weekly contact targets from your campaign launch through your GOTV start date
• Confirm your filing requirements – and make sure you're on track to meet the deadline before you announce publicly