How to run for local office in Kansas

Kansas Secretary of State, Elections Division Files candidates for national, state, legislative, and judicial offices, sets the registration-closing dates counties must follow (25-2311), publishes the Kansas Election Standards that county election officers work from, and sells the statewide voter registration database and advance-voting lists. A city or school board candidate files locally with the county election officer and buys data from either the county or the Secretary of State.

Each of Kansas's 105 counties has a county election officer: the elected county clerk in 101 counties, and an election commissioner appointed by the Secretary of State in Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, and Wyandotte counties (Secretary of State). The county election officer registers voters, runs advance voting by mail and in person, conducts every city and school district election (25-2110; 25-2010), accepts city and school candidate filings, and for offices covered by the Campaign Finance Act receives local candidates' appointment-of-treasurer forms and receipts and expenditures reports (25-4148).

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 Kansas it comes from Kansas Secretary of State (Statewide Voter Registration Data Request, form CVR).

Access

Available for political and election purposes

Cost

$300 for the entire state; $100 per district or county selection (a U.S. House, state Senate, state House, judicial, or State Board of Education district, or one county); $50 per party-affiliation selection; $50 to exclude inactive voters; advance-voting lists during the advance period $50 one-time, $150 for weekly updates, or $300 for a daily subscription (Secretary of State form CVR, revised March 2, 2026, checked 2026-09-09).

Format

Formatted data file by email or CD-ROM; you need your own software to read it. Payment by credit card or prepaid account.

Vote history

Not confirmed

Phone numbers

Not confirmed

Updated

The statewide database is compiled from records the 105 county election officers send quarterly, so county files are fresher; the Secretary of State makes no guarantee of accuracy or timeliness (form CVR).

Who can get it: Anyone. You sign a request certifying that you have a right of access to the records and that you understand the commercial-use ban. At the county level, any person may make a written request for a copy of the registration books at any time except election day, and the county election officer must provide it within 10 days (25-2320).

Permitted use: Compiling, using, or buying voter registration data solely for political campaign or election purposes is expressly not a commercial use. Selling, giving, or receiving the data to sell property or services is a class C misdemeanor (25-2320a).

County option: The county election officer must sell copies of the registration books at no more than actual cost, at a uniform price for everyone requesting the same copies, within 10 days of a written request (25-2320). For a city or school race inside one county this is the fresher file; ask for a precinct-level extract plus the advance-ballot application list.

• Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and nondriver ID numbers are removed before any record is released (25-2320(b)). Everything else a voter provides when registering is a public record (Secretary of State).
• Kansas voters may affiliate with the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, No Labels Kansas, or United Kansas parties, or remain unaffiliated; the form lets you buy a single party's voters for $50 per selection.
• The Secretary of State form does not list the fields in the file; ask the Elections Division for the current layout before you build an import.

Local candidates file with the county election officer by noon on June 1 of the election year, either a declaration of intention with a fee or a nomination petition. If three or fewer candidates file for a seat there is no primary and every name goes straight to the November ballot; more than three triggers the August primary (25-2108a; 25-2021).

File with

The county election officer of the county where the city or school district sits (or where the greater share of its population lives) for city (25-2110) and school board (25-2020) offices; the county election officer for county and township offices; the Secretary of State for legislative, state, and judicial offices (25-205).

Filing fee

School board: $20 with a declaration of intention (25-2020). City: a declaration of candidacy on the county's form; any fee is set locally, so ask the county election officer (25-2110). County offices: 1 percent of the annual salary, $5 minimum; township offices: $1; state representative $50 and state senator $75 plus a $70 Commission fee (Secretary of State fee table; 25-205).

Petition

Instead of the fee: a school board member-district seat needs 50 electors of the member district or 10 percent of them, whichever is less; an at-large seat needs 50 electors of the district (25-2020). City petition signature counts are set by city ordinance (25-2110); the Secretary of State supplies the Non-Partisan City/School Nomination Petition (form CP). Legislative primary petitions need 2 percent of the party's district registration (25-205).

Partisan?

City and school board elections are nonpartisan (Kansas Election Standards, chapter IV; nomination form CP is the Non-Partisan City/School Nomination Petition). County, township, legislative, and state offices are partisan, with an August primary for Democrats and Republicans; Libertarian and United Kansas candidates are nominated by convention and independents by petition.

Filing window: Kansas has a deadline, not a window: 12:00 noon on June 1 of the election year, or noon the next business day if June 1 falls on a weekend or holiday (25-205; 25-2109). Local candidates may file any time before that. Independent candidates for partisan offices file petitions by noon on the first Monday in August. No candidate may withdraw after the filing deadline (25-2106).

• Some home-rule cities have adopted charter ordinances moving their elections to other schedules, including even years; school districts have no home rule and must use the odd-year November date (Kansas Election Standards, chapter IV).
• The county election officer has three days after a city, school, county, or township filing to rule on its validity (Election Standards; 25-208a).

State-level campaign finance in Kansas is overseen by Kansas Public Disclosure Commission (Governmental Ethics Commission).

Where local candidates file: The Campaign Finance Act defines 'local office' as a member of the governing body of a city of the first class, any elected office of a unified school district with 35,000 or more pupils, a county office, or the Board of Public Utilities (25-4143). If you are running for one of those, you file an appointment of treasurer with the county election officer when you file for office, then file receipts and expenditures reports, or an affidavit of exemption if you will raise and spend under the threshold, with that same county election officer (25-4148; Commission). Candidates for second- and third-class city councils and for most school boards have no state campaign finance filing and no state contribution limit; check for a local ordinance. State candidates file with the Secretary of State.

Contribution limits: For covered local offices, per primary election and again per general election: $1,000 from any person, business, or PAC if the jurisdiction's population is under 50,000, and $2,000 if it is 50,000 or more (25-4153(a)); party committees are capped the same way in a contested primary and unlimited in the general. State House, district judge, and district attorney candidates: $1,000; state Senate and State Board of Education: $2,000; statewide offices: $4,000 (Commission limits table). Corporations, partnerships, and unions may give up to the same limits as individuals. Loans count toward the limit at their balance at the end of the period.

Reporting: For covered candidates: a report by the eighth day before the primary (covering January 1 through 12 days before the primary), by the eighth day before the general election (11 days before the primary through 12 days before the general), and by January 10 after the election year; in years with no election, one annual report on January 10 (25-4148).

• Candidates under the Act pay a registration fee to the Commission when they file for office; the Secretary of State's fee table shows a $70 Commission fee for legislative candidates and a separate line for county officers.
• A candidate for an office outside the Act's 'local office' definition may still be subject to a city or county disclosure ordinance; the Commission's local-level jurisdiction otherwise covers only conflict-of-interest and substantial-interest statements.

In person, with no-excuse mail voting. Election-day voting at the polls with photo ID, plus 'advance voting' by mail or in person for any registered voter, no reason required, beginning up to 20 days before the election (25-1119; 25-1122; Secretary of State).

Early voting

In-person advance voting at the county election office or satellite sites may begin 20 days before the election and must be offered in every county by the week before; it ends at noon the day before the election (Secretary of State advance voting guide and 2026 election dates). Photo ID is required to vote in person.

Mail ballots

Apply with form AV1, giving your Kansas driver's license number or a copy of your photo ID; applications for mailed ballots are accepted from 90 days before a general election, or April 1 before an August primary, until the Tuesday of the week before the election (25-1122). Starting in 2026, mailed ballots must be received by the county election office, a drop box, or a polling place by the close of polls on election day; the old three-day grace period is gone (Secretary of State).

Registration deadline

Voter registration books close 21 days before every election and reopen after it; registrations received in that period are processed after the election (Secretary of State; 25-2311). There is no election-day registration.

Same-day registration

No

Knowing who has already voted: Two sources. The county election officer must prepare and maintain a list of everyone who has applied for an advance voting ballot, with mailing address and precinct, and all of the officer's advance-voting records are open to public inspection except ID numbers (25-1122(i), (j)); ask for the list as a daily export once ballots go out. The Secretary of State sells statewide advance-voting lists during the advance period: $50 one-time, $150 with weekly updates, $300 for a daily subscription (form CVR). Election-day voters appear only after the county updates voter history.

Kansas has 105 counties run by elected county commissions, with county clerks serving as election officers everywhere but the four largest counties (Secretary of State). Cities are classed as first, second, or third class by population and use mayor-council, commission, or commission-manager forms; only first-class city governing bodies fall under the state Campaign Finance Act. Unified school districts elect boards by member district, at large, or a mix (25-2020). Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas share a Unified Government whose commissioners and Board of Public Utilities are also under the Act (25-4143). Townships, community colleges, and drainage, fire, water, and hospital districts elect boards on the odd-year ballot or their own schedules.

• City council member or commissioner
• Mayor
• Unified school district board member
• Community college trustee
• County commissioner
• County clerk
• County treasurer
• County sheriff
• Township trustee
• Drainage, fire, or hospital district board member
• Unified Government commissioner (Wyandotte County)
• Board of Public Utilities member (Kansas City, Kansas)
• State representative
• State senator

When local elections happen: City and school board general elections: the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of odd-numbered years, with a first-Tuesday-in-August primary only where more than three candidates file for a seat (25-2107; 25-2108a; 25-2010; 25-2021); next November 2, 2027. County, township, legislative, and state offices: the August primary and November general election in even years (Secretary of State).

Culper does not license voter data in Kansas today. You upload the Kansas 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.

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.

1. 1.Kansas SOS, Statewide Voter Registration Data Request form CVR (prices, advance-voting lists, quarterly compilation)
2. 2.K.S.A. 25-2320, copies of registration records from the county election officer at cost
3. 3.K.S.A. 25-2320a, commercial use of voter lists prohibited; campaign use allowed
4. 4.Kansas SOS, Candidate Information (filing deadlines, fees, who files with the SOS)
5. 5.Kansas SOS, County Election Offices (clerks vs. appointed commissioners)
6. 6.Kansas SOS, Voter Information (election dates, municipal elections in odd years, photo ID, 2026 mail ballot deadline)
7. 7.Kansas SOS, Voter Registration (books close 21 days before; public record)
8. 8.Kansas SOS, Advance Voting Guide (20-day in-person window, mail application deadline)
9. 9.Kansas SOS, Important Election Dates 2026 (registration and advance voting offsets)
10. 10.Kansas Election Standards, Chapter IV Candidates (nonpartisan city and school elections, June 1 deadline)
11. 11.K.S.A. 25-205, June 1 noon filing deadline and nomination petitions
12. 12.K.S.A. 25-2109, filing deadline for city elections
13. 13.K.S.A. 25-2110, city candidates file with the county election officer
14. 14.K.S.A. 25-2107, city general election in November of odd and even years
15. 15.K.S.A. 25-2108a, city primary in August when more than three candidates file
16. 16.K.S.A. 25-2010, school board elections in November of odd years
17. 17.K.S.A. 25-2020, school board candidate petition or $20 declaration
18. 18.K.S.A. 25-2021, school board primary when required
19. 19.K.S.A. 25-1122, advance voting applications, deadlines, county records open to inspection
20. 20.K.S.A. 25-2311, closing of registration before elections
21. 21.Kansas Public Disclosure Commission, Contribution Limits (state and local office tables)
22. 22.Kansas Public Disclosure Commission, Campaign Finance overview (which local offices are covered, where to file)
23. 23.K.S.A. 25-4153, contribution limits by office and population
24. 24.K.S.A. 25-4143, Campaign Finance Act definitions ('local office')