//Run for office · Arkansas

How to run for local office in Arkansas

Arkansas holds its primary and school elections in March and municipal elections in November of even years, so there is no regular local election in 2027 and the 2028 filing period opens in November 2027.

Facts checked against official sources · September 9, 2026

Arkansas runs almost all of its local elections on the even-year state calendar. Since Acts 405 and 503 of 2025, the preferential primary, the nonpartisan judicial election, and the annual school election share the first Tuesday in March (March 3, 2026), the party filing period is a one-week window in early November of the year before, and municipal general elections ride the November general election ballot with runoffs on December 1. County offices are partisan and go through the party primary; municipal offices in most cities and school board seats are nonpartisan and reached by petition. The county clerk is your filing office for county, township, school board, and most municipal candidacies, and the county board of election commissioners runs the election.

There is no regular county, municipal, or school election scheduled in Arkansas in 2027; school board terms ending in 2027 were folded into the March 2026 election by Act 503. Use 2027 to build. Every candidate for any office files campaign contribution and expenditure reports electronically through the Secretary of State's online system under the Arkansas Ethics Commission's rules, with a $3,500 per-election contribution limit for the 2026 cycle. The Secretary of State does not publish a voter file order page; the county clerk, as permanent registrar, is the practical source for a local voter list.

Election authority: Arkansas Secretary of State, Elections Division
Voter file: Public record — anyone can obtain it
Campaign finance: Arkansas Financial Disclosure, the Secretary of State's online filing system (ethics-disclosures.sos.arkansas.gov) (Arkansas Ethics Commission (rules and enforcement); reports filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State)
How voters vote: In person, with excuse-required absentee voting
Registration deadline: 30 days before the election (Ark. Code 7-5-201(a); Arkansas Constitution Amendment 51). When the 30th day falls on a weekend the deadline moves to the next business day, so it was February 2, 2026 for the March 3 primary and October 5, 2026 for the November 3 general. Submit the application to the county clerk or another official voter registration agency, or mail it, no later than the 30th day.
Local offices: County and township offices are partisan and are nominated in the March preferential primary (runoff March 31). Municipal offices are nonpartisan by petition unless a mayor-council city's council votes before August 31 of the prior year to have the parties run municipal primaries (Ark. Code 14-42-206(a)). School board seats are nonpartisan. Judicial and prosecutor races are nonpartisan on the March ballot.

Who runs elections in Arkansas

Arkansas Secretary of State, Elections Division The Secretary of State publishes the statewide election calendar with statutory citations, accepts filings for state and district offices, runs the online financial disclosure system where every candidate files campaign finance reports, and maintains the statewide voter registration system that county clerks use. The State Board of Election Commissioners, a separate agency, publishes the Running for Public Office handbook and trains county election officials. Local candidates file candidacy papers with the county clerk, not the Secretary of State.

The county clerk is the permanent voter registrar: the clerk processes registrations, issues voter cards, accepts petitions and candidacy filings for county, township, school board, and municipal offices, handles absentee ballots, and conducts early voting at the clerk's office. A three-member county board of election commissioners (CBEC) sets polling sites, draws ballot order by lot, prints ballots, counts votes, and certifies results.

Getting the Arkansas voter file

The voter file is the list of every registered voter, with the fields a campaign needs to target: address, party where the state records it, and vote history. In Arkansas it comes from Arkansas county clerks (county lists); Arkansas Secretary of State (statewide voter registration system).

Access: Public record — anyone can obtain it
Cost: Confirm with Arkansas county clerks (county lists); Arkansas Secretary of State (statewide voter registration system)
Format: Confirm with Arkansas county clerks (county lists); Arkansas Secretary of State (statewide voter registration system)
Vote history: Not confirmed
Phone numbers: Not confirmed
Updated: Confirm with Arkansas county clerks (county lists); Arkansas Secretary of State (statewide voter registration system)

Who can get it: The Secretary of State's site publishes no voter list order page or fee schedule as of 2026-09-09. Ask your county clerk, as permanent registrar, for the county's registered voter list, or ask the Secretary of State's Elections Division about a statewide extract; confirm any eligibility rule and use restriction with the office that fills your request.

Permitted use: Confirm with the county clerk or the Secretary of State's Elections Division before you order; the state's published pages do not state the permitted uses.

County option: Yes, and it is the route most Arkansas local campaigns use: the county clerk maintains the registration rolls and can produce the county list. Ask for precinct, voting history, and, for a school board or ward race, the district or ward field.

The Secretary of State's VoterView site lets any voter look up their own registration, polling site, and sample ballot, but it is not a bulk data source.

Whatever file you get, Culper imports it as a CSV and maps the columns for you. See how to read a voter file for what the fields mean.

Filing to run for local office in Arkansas

Arkansas has three routes onto a local ballot. Party candidates for county and township offices pay the party's filing fee, sign the political practices pledge, get a party certificate, and file it with the county clerk during the party filing period. Independent candidates for county and township offices file a petition signed by 3 percent of the qualified electors (based on the last vote for governor, capped at 2,000) with the county clerk in the same window. Nonpartisan municipal and school board candidates file petitions with the county clerk (or city clerk in city manager and city administrator cities) during a one-week window: 90 days before the November general election for municipal offices, and during the party filing period for school board seats. Every candidate also signs a political practices pledge and an affidavit of eligibility.

File with: County, township, and school board candidates: the county clerk (for a municipality in more than one county, the clerk of the county with most of the city's population). Municipal candidates in mayor-council cities: the county clerk. Municipal candidates in city manager or city administrator cities: the city clerk or recorder. State and district candidates, and nonpartisan judicial candidates: the Secretary of State.
Filing fee: Party candidates pay the filing fee set by the party: county, municipal, and township fees are set by the county party committee with state committee approval, all others by the state executive committee (Ark. Code 7-7-301(a)). Independent and nonpartisan municipal and school board candidates file by petition and pay no state fee.
Petition: Independent county or township candidates: 3 percent of qualified electors in the county or township based on the last vote for governor, maximum 2,000 signatures (Ark. Code 7-7-103). Mayor-council cities: 30 electors of the ward or city in cities of the first class, 10 in cities of the second class and incorporated towns (Ark. Code 14-42-206). City manager cities: 50 qualified electors (14-47-110); city administrator cities: 50 electors resident six months (14-48-109). School board: 20 registered voters of the district and, if zoned, the zone (Ark. Code 6-14-111(e)(1)). Signatures may be collected no earlier than 90 days before filing.
Partisan?: County and township offices are partisan and are nominated in the March preferential primary (runoff March 31). Municipal offices are nonpartisan by petition unless a mayor-council city's council votes before August 31 of the prior year to have the parties run municipal primaries (Ark. Code 14-42-206(a)). School board seats are nonpartisan. Judicial and prosecutor races are nonpartisan on the March ballot.

Filing window: Party filing period: one week beginning at noon on the first Monday in November of the year before the election (noon November 3 to noon November 11, 2025 for the March 3, 2026 primary; Ark. Code 7-7-203(c)(1) as amended by Act 405 of 2025). Independent county candidates and school board petitioners use the same window (school board petitions could be filed noon November 3 to noon November 12, 2025 after the holiday extension). Independent municipal candidates: a one-week period ending at noon 90 days before the general election (July 29 to noon August 5, 2026 for November 3, 2026). Deadlines that fall on a weekend or holiday move to the next business day (Ark. Code 7-1-108).

Key Arkansas dates
What	When	Note
Regular county, municipal, and school elections in 2027	Varies	None scheduled. Arkansas holds these in even years; school board terms ending in 2027 were moved into the March 3, 2026 election by Act 503 of 2025. Special elections may be called by the county or city.
Party filing period for the 2028 cycle (county and township offices, school board petitions)	Varies	One week beginning at noon on the first Monday in November 2027, per Ark. Code 7-7-203(c)(1) as amended by Act 405 of 2025; confirm the exact dates on the Secretary of State's 2028 election calendar when it is posted.
Independent municipal candidate petition window, November 2028 general election	Varies	One-week period ending at noon 90 days before the general election (Ark. Code 14-42-206); for November 3, 2026 it was July 29 to noon August 5, 2026.
March 2026 preferential primary, nonpartisan judicial, and annual school election (last cycle, for reference)	March 3, 2026	Ark. Code 7-7-203(b), 7-10-102, 6-14-102; filing was November 3 to 11, 2025. Registration deadline was February 2, 2026; early voting February 16 to March 2.
November 2026 general election with municipal offices (last cycle, for reference)	November 3, 2026	Registration deadline October 5, 2026; early voting October 19 to November 2; county and municipal runoff December 1, 2026 (Ark. Code 7-5-106).

A person may file for only one municipal office in the municipal filing period and may not run for more than one state, county, municipal, district, or township office on the same election date (Ark. Code 14-42-206(e), 7-5-111).
Ballot order for every office, including school board, is drawn by lot at a public CBEC meeting at least 89 days before the primary; attend it.

Campaign finance rules in Arkansas

State-level campaign finance in Arkansas is overseen by Arkansas Ethics Commission (rules and enforcement); reports filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State through Arkansas Financial Disclosure, the Secretary of State's online filing system (ethics-disclosures.sos.arkansas.gov).

Where local candidates file: All candidates for state, district, county, township, municipal, or school district office file Campaign Contribution and Expenditure Reports in electronic form through the Secretary of State's website (Running for Public Office handbook, 2026 edition). The Arkansas Ethics Commission writes the rules and answers compliance questions at (501) 324-9600. Statements of Financial Interest are different: county, township, and school candidates file those with the county clerk, and municipal candidates with the city clerk or recorder (Ark. Code 21-8-701, 21-8-703). County, municipal, township, and school board candidates do not owe any campaign report until they have received contributions or made expenditures over $500, not counting a filing fee paid from personal funds.

Contribution limits: $3,500 per election from any person to a candidate for the 2026 election cycle, the amount set under Ark. Code 7-6-203(i) effective January 30, 2025 and adjusted for inflation each cycle. A primary, runoff, general, school election, and special election each count as a separate election. An approved political action committee may not accept more than $10,000 from one person in a calendar year and must register before contributing. Candidates may loan or give their own campaign unlimited amounts, but the money must be reported.

Reporting: County, municipal, township, and school board candidates: a preelection report if you are opposed and have raised or spent more than $500, due no later than 7 days before the election and complete through the 10th day before it (the 2026 handbook calendar shows February 24, 2026 for the March 3 school election), and a final report due 20 days after the end of the month following the month your name was on the ballot (May 20, 2026 for a March election). State and district candidates file quarterly reports, monthly reports in the election year, preelection reports, and a final report on the same trigger.

Late preelection reports draw fines of $50 to $250 per report depending on how late and whether it is a repeat; other late reports can be fined $50 to $3,500.
Non-incumbent candidates must file a Statement of Financial Interest for the prior calendar year by the November deadline in the calendar (November 17, 2025 for 2026 candidates).

Limits and thresholds change. Treat the figures here as a starting point and confirm the current schedule with Arkansas Ethics Commission (rules and enforcement); reports filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State before you accept a check. Our campaign finance basics guide covers the bookkeeping every local candidate needs on day one.

How voting works in Arkansas

In person, with excuse-required absentee voting. Arkansans vote in person, either during early voting at the county clerk's office and any additional sites the CBEC opens, or at their polling site on election day with photo ID. Absentee ballots are available only to voters who will be unavoidably absent from their polling site, cannot attend because of illness or physical disability, or are in the military, merchant marine, or living overseas; age alone is not an excuse.

Early voting: For the preferential primary and the November general election, early voting begins 15 days before election day (February 16 and October 19 in 2026), 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and ends at 5 p.m. on the Monday before the election (Ark. Code 7-5-418(a)(1)(A)). The county clerk runs it at the clerk's office; the CBEC may add sites. Shorter windows apply to runoffs and special elections; check the SOS calendar.
Mail ballots: Excuse required. Apply to the county clerk by mail or electronically no later than 7 days before the election, or in person or by designated bearer by close of business the Friday before. Mailed ballots must reach the clerk by 7:30 p.m. on election day; ballots returned in person or by bearer are due by close of business the Friday before the election.
Registration deadline: 30 days before the election (Ark. Code 7-5-201(a); Arkansas Constitution Amendment 51). When the 30th day falls on a weekend the deadline moves to the next business day, so it was February 2, 2026 for the March 3 primary and October 5, 2026 for the November 3 general. Submit the application to the county clerk or another official voter registration agency, or mail it, no later than the 30th day.
Same-day registration: No

Knowing who has already voted: No statewide daily roster is posted on the Secretary of State's site as of 2026-09-09. Early voting and absentee balloting are run by the county clerk (Ark. Code 7-5-418), so ask the clerk for the running list of early voters and absentee ballots returned during the window and for the schedule on which it is updated. Candidates may also station poll watchers at early voting sites, who may compile lists of persons voting.

Local government in Arkansas: what you can run for

County government is led by an elected county judge (the executive) and a quorum court of justices of the peace elected by district, plus a separately elected county clerk, circuit clerk, sheriff, assessor, treasurer, collector, coroner, and surveyor, all partisan; a person holding one of those offices cannot be appointed to another civil office (Arkansas Constitution art. 7, sec. 53). Cities are classed as cities of the first class, cities of the second class, and incorporated towns, under a mayor-council, city manager, or city administrator form of government, each with its own petition rules; council members from wards must live in the ward. School districts are governed by elected boards, often by zone, and board members may not be district employees. Members of regional boards and commissions file their disclosures with the county clerk where they live.

City council member or alderman
Mayor
City clerk or recorder
City attorney
School board member
Justice of the peace (quorum court)
County judge
County clerk
Sheriff
Assessor
Treasurer or collector
Constable
State representative
State senator

When local elections happen: Even-numbered years only for regular local elections. The preferential primary, nonpartisan judicial election, and annual school election fall on the first Tuesday in March (March 3, 2026), with the primary runoff four weeks later (March 31, 2026). Municipal general elections and any school runoff are on the November general election ballot (November 3, 2026), with county and municipal runoffs on December 1. Odd-numbered years such as 2027 have no regular local elections; special elections for vacancies, sales taxes, and bonds can be called on dates the county or city sets.

A mayor-council city can opt into party primaries for municipal offices by council resolution passed before August 31 of the year before the election (Ark. Code 14-42-206(a)); otherwise municipal races are nonpartisan petition races.

Running your Arkansas campaign on Culper

Culper does not license voter data in Arkansas today. You upload the Arkansas voter file described above as a CSV, and every feature runs on it: search and lists, plain-English queries, texting and email, block walking, and volunteer coordination. Online donation processing is in development; ask about timing on the onboarding call. Your file stays in your campaign's workspace and is never shared with another campaign.

Set up your Arkansas campaign in an afternoon

Upload the voter file, ask for your first list in plain English, and hand your volunteers the walking app. Signup is open to candidates in every state. Pricing is set after a short call so it matches the size of the race.

Get started Book a demo

Arkansas questions we get asked

Is there a city council or school board election in Arkansas in 2027?

Not a regular one. Arkansas holds municipal general elections in November of even-numbered years and, since Act 503 of 2025, the annual school election on the March primary date in even years; school board terms that would have ended in 2027 were moved into the March 3, 2026 election. The next regular cycle is 2028, and its party filing period opens at noon on the first Monday in November 2027. Special elections can still be called in 2027 for vacancies or ballot questions.

Where do I file to run for city council or school board in Arkansas?

With the county clerk in most cases. Arkansas school board candidates file a petition of 20 registered voters, a political practices pledge, and an affidavit of eligibility with the county clerk during the party filing period. Independent municipal candidates in mayor-council cities file a petition (30 electors in a first-class city, 10 in second-class cities and towns) with the county clerk during the one-week window ending at noon 90 days before the November general election; in city manager or city administrator cities you file with the city clerk with 50 signatures.

What is the contribution limit for Arkansas local candidates?

$3,500 per election from any person for the 2026 election cycle under Ark. Code 7-6-203(i), effective January 30, 2025 and indexed to inflation each cycle. In Arkansas the primary, runoff, general, school election, and any special election are separate elections for limit purposes. An approved PAC may give the same amount per election but cannot take more than $10,000 from one donor per year.

Where do Arkansas county and municipal candidates file campaign finance reports?

Online with the Arkansas Secretary of State. Every Arkansas candidate, including county, township, municipal, and school district candidates, files Campaign Contribution and Expenditure Reports electronically through the Secretary of State's financial disclosure system, under rules written and enforced by the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Local candidates owe no report until they raise or spend more than $500, then file a preelection report 7 days before the election if opposed and a final report 20 days after the end of the month following the election month.

How do I get a voter list for an Arkansas city or school district?

Ask the county clerk. The clerk is Arkansas's permanent voter registrar and maintains the county rolls in the statewide registration system; the Secretary of State does not publish a voter file order page or price list. Request the list with precinct, ward or school zone, and voting history, and ask the clerk what fee and format apply, since neither is published statewide.

How does early voting work in Arkansas, and can I find out who has voted?

Arkansas early voting for the March primary and November general begins 15 days before election day at the county clerk's office (8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays) and ends at 5 p.m. the Monday before. Absentee voting requires an excuse. The state posts no daily roster, so ask the county clerk for the running list of early and absentee voters; candidates can also place poll watchers at early voting sites, who are allowed to compile lists of persons voting.

Keep reading

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against the official sources below on September 9, 2026. Rules change between cycles; when a number here and the agency disagree, the agency is right.