If you’ve voted before, chances are you’ve come across a candidate or two who seemed kind of … unconventional. A gubernatorial candidate whose official statement was just: “F all politicians.” A tech billionaire who ran for Senate just so he could warn everyone about the dangers of self-driving cars. Angelyne. And you’ve likely come across dozens more names who seemed like … well, just random people.
You might have wondered, “How did all these people get on to the ballot to begin with?”
That process is actually happening right now. This week marks the final deadlines to file to run in the March 2024 primary election, and candidates are wrapping up their paperwork in these final hours. Soon, we’ll have our full list of candidates for city, county, state, and federal offices.
The way things are looking, there are going to be a lot of names on your ballot.
Running for elected office is a big commitment. You have to finance a whole campaign. Craft a message that will resonate with the public. Meet constituents and listen to their concerns. Shoulder the responsibility of serving in office, should you be lucky enough to win.
But the work begins even earlier than that. It begins with just getting your name on the ballot. Here’s how that happens.
Step 1: Meet the qualification requirements
Qualification requirements vary depending on the office you’re running for.
Interested in a seat on the LAUSD board? You just need to be a registered voter within LAUSD boundaries and be a resident of the district you’re running in as of Oct. 7, 2023.
If you’re angling for, say, district attorney, you have to be a registered voter in the county and be licensed to practice law in California.
And if you’re running for U.S. Senator, you have to be at least 30 years old and have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years. You also have to establish residency in California by the time you’re sworn in.
All the candidate qualifications are listed on the L.A. County Registrar’s website and City Clerk’s website.
2: Submit a declaration of intention form
This is just an affidavit that announces you’re planning to become a candidate. These declarations are required for offices in the city of L.A., like City Council, mayoral or LAUSD board seats, as well as judicial seats, but not for other countywide, state or federal offices. (The due date for this form was in November, so if you were hoping to make a last-minute leap into the ring for a city office, you’re going to have to do it another year.)
3: Pay filing fees and/or collect signatures
This is the biggest hurdle to getting on the ballot.
For most offices, you have to pay a fee and submit a petition of signatures from registered voters who support your candidacy.
The fee varies: for L.A. city offices, it’s $300. For L.A. County Supervisor, it’s $2,323.99. The highest fee for the March elections is $4,023.79, if you’re running for district attorney. Most of these fees are calculated by taking 1% of the position’s annual salary.
But you don’t always have to pay them. If you submit more signatures, you can bypass the fee entirely.
So if you’re running for L.A. City Council, you can pay $300 and submit 500 signatures and qualify to run. Or you can submit 1,000 signatures instead, and pay no fee at all. It’s the same for all city offices, whether it’s the LAUSD board or L.A. mayor.
That threshold is much higher for county, state and federal offices. For L.A. County Supervisor, you need almost 7,000 signatures to bypass the fee. For district attorney, you need more than 12,000. (If you pay the fee for either of these offices, you only have to submit between 20 and 40 signatures.)
Getting signatures takes a lot of work. The petitions need to be signed physically, in person, within a 1 to 2-month timeframe. All the signatures must be from registered voters of the area in which you’re running as a candidate.
Election officials will check the names and throw out any entries that aren’t deemed valid. That means you have to collect substantially more signatures than you actually need to make sure you have enough valid ones to make the cut.
Not interested in all that legwork? Consider running for a community college district board of trustees — for those seats, no fees or signatures are required at all.
4: Submit your paperwork by the deadline
Those deadlines are this week for the March primary! Wednesday, Dec. 6 is the final day to submit nomination papers for L.A. city offices, while Friday, Dec. 8 is the final day for county, state and federal offices.
After that, election authorities will review all the paperwork, verify signatures and finalize the list of candidates that will show up on your ballot next spring.
Once those lists are finalized, we at LAist will get to work on Voter Game Plan, our comprehensive voter guide that helps you get ready to cast your vote. We’ll have that ready for you in early February.
