//Run for office · Tennessee

How to run for local office in Tennessee

In Tennessee, local candidates do everything at the county election commission: pick up a 25-signature petition, file it by noon on the deadline with no filing fee, and file campaign finance reports there too.

Facts checked against official sources · September 9, 2026

Tennessee runs elections through county election commissions under the Secretary of State's Division of Elections. If you are running for city council, school board, county commission, or another local office, the county election commission is your office for almost everything: nominating petitions, the voter file, early-voting rosters, and campaign finance filings (TCA 2-10-105). The state Division of Elections handles federal and state-level candidates and sets the calendar.

Two things make Tennessee different from most states. Voting by mail is limited to voters with a listed excuse, so the ground game is early voting, which runs for about two weeks and ends five days before election day; county commissions publish daily early-voting counts and sell the lists. And the calendar is fragmented: county offices are elected in August of even years, while cities vote on their own charter dates, from March to November, in both odd and even years.

Election authority: Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Elections
Voter file: Available for political and election purposes · County files are cheap: Davidson County charges a $40 computer setup fee for a file of 100,000 voters or fewer ($75 above 100,000) and $30 per 1,000 voters for paper lists; Rutherford County charges $50 for an electronic file regardless of size, 2 cents per voter for printed lists, and 25 cents per mailing label (county price pages checked 2026-09-09). The statewide file is sold by the Division of Elections at a price set by the Secretary of State under TCA 2-2-138; confirm the current figure with the Division.
Campaign finance: Tennessee Online Campaign Finance (used by state-level filers); local candidates file with the county election commission (Tennessee Registry of Election Finance (Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance))
How voters vote: In person, with excuse-required absentee voting
Registration deadline: 30 days before the election (TCA 2-2-109); mail forms must be postmarked 30 days out. For November 3, 2026 the deadline was October 5.
Local offices: County offices are partisan when a county party chooses to hold a May primary; otherwise everyone runs in the August general. City offices are usually nonpartisan by charter. Some school boards now hold party primaries (the 2026 state schedule lists school board primaries in May and August).

Who runs elections in Tennessee

Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Elections The Division of Elections (the Coordinator of Elections) sets the statewide calendar, publishes the qualifying rules and candidate guides, accepts petitions for federal and statewide offices, and posts registration and turnout statistics. For a local race you will rarely deal with it directly: your petition, your voter list, and your campaign finance reports all go to the county election commission. Its site is still where you check qualifying and withdrawal deadlines and download the absentee rules.

County election commissions register voters, run early voting and election-day polling, issue and receive candidate nominating petitions, and accept local candidates' campaign finance filings. They also run municipal and special school district elections on behalf of cities and districts (the Secretary of State's local election schedule lists each city election by county). Use the county election commission finder to find yours.

Getting the Tennessee 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 Tennessee it comes from County election commissions (statewide extracts through the Secretary of State, Division of Elections).

Access: Available for political and election purposes
Cost: County files are cheap: Davidson County charges a $40 computer setup fee for a file of 100,000 voters or fewer ($75 above 100,000) and $30 per 1,000 voters for paper lists; Rutherford County charges $50 for an electronic file regardless of size, 2 cents per voter for printed lists, and 25 cents per mailing label (county price pages checked 2026-09-09). The statewide file is sold by the Division of Elections at a price set by the Secretary of State under TCA 2-2-138; confirm the current figure with the Division.
Format: Electronic file (Rutherford County delivers DBF), printed lists, or mailing labels; formats vary by county.
Vote history: Included
Phone numbers: Not confirmed
Updated: Confirm with County election commissions (statewide extracts through the Secretary of State, Division of Elections)

Who can get it: Anyone who certifies on the state form that the list will be used for political purposes only (TCA 2-2-138). Candidates, parties, PACs, and vendors working for them all qualify; you do not have to be a candidate.

Permitted use: Political purposes only. You sign a certification to that effect when you order; commercial use is not permitted.

County option: The county file is the normal route for a local race. Order it from the election commission of the county you are running in; multi-county cities need one order per county. Ask for the file cut to your city or district so you are not paying for or cleaning voters who cannot vote for you.

Rutherford County's electronic file carries up to 10 years of voting history and can be limited to a city or district; Davidson County's order page does not list fields, so ask before you order.
Social security numbers are never included. Whether phone numbers are on the file is not stated on the county pages checked; ask your county.
County commissions also sell lists of who voted early or in a given city election (Rutherford County lists these as printed-list options), which is how you build a chase list during early voting.

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 Tennessee

Tennessee has no filing fee and no party registration. You get on the ballot with a nominating petition signed by at least 25 registered voters who are eligible to vote for the office, filed by noon on the qualifying deadline with the county election commission of the county where you live. Petitions are available up to 90 days before the deadline; only original petition pages count, so ask for extra pages rather than photocopying. Withdrawal is by noon on the seventh day after the qualifying deadline.

File with: County election commission of your county of residence (with certified duplicates to each other county in a multi-county district). State and federal candidates file with the Division of Elections.
Filing fee: None. Tennessee charges no government filing fee for any office (parties may charge their own primary candidates a fee).
Petition: 25 signatures and addresses of registered voters eligible to vote for the office (collect 40 to 50 to be safe). Addresses must match the voter registration.
Partisan?: County offices are partisan when a county party chooses to hold a May primary; otherwise everyone runs in the August general. City offices are usually nonpartisan by charter. Some school boards now hold party primaries (the 2026 state schedule lists school board primaries in May and August).

Filing window: Two rules. For most elections, including November and odd-year city elections, the deadline is 12:00 noon on the third Thursday in the third calendar month before election day (TCA 2-5-101), so a November 2 election closes on August 19 and an August 5 election closes on May 20. For offices on the even-year August ballot (county general and state primaries), the 2026 deadline was noon on Tuesday, March 10, 2026 under the Secretary of State's 2026 guides; confirm the 2028 date with your county election commission. Withdrawal is by noon seven days after the deadline.

Key Tennessee dates
What	When	Note
Qualifying deadline, city elections held on Thursday, August 5, 2027	May 20, 2027	Noon, third Thursday in the third calendar month before the election (TCA 2-5-101). Applies only if your city's charter puts its election on that date; check the Secretary of State's 2027 local election schedule.
Qualifying deadline, city elections held on Tuesday, November 2, 2027	August 19, 2027	Noon, third Thursday in the third calendar month before the election (TCA 2-5-101). Withdrawal deadline is noon on August 26, 2027.
Qualifying deadline, August 3, 2028 county general and state primary	Varies	The August-ballot deadline was moved earlier by state law; in 2026 it was noon on Tuesday, March 10. Ask your county election commission for the 2028 date when the state calendar is posted.

Campaign finance rules in Tennessee

State-level campaign finance in Tennessee is overseen by Tennessee Registry of Election Finance (Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance) through Tennessee Online Campaign Finance (used by state-level filers); local candidates file with the county election commission.

Where local candidates file: Local candidates never file with the Registry. Under TCA 2-10-105(b), a candidate for any local office (city council, mayor, school board, county commission, county constitutional offices) certifies a political treasurer to, and files every disclosure statement with, the election commission of the county where the election is held. State legislative and statewide candidates file with the Registry. Certify your treasurer before you accept a dollar or spend one.

Contribution limits: State limits apply to local candidates. For 2025-2026 the Registry's table (TCA 2-10-301 et seq., adjusted under Public Chapter 415 of 2025) sets, per election, $1,900 from an individual and $10,100 from a PAC to a candidate for local office, with a $153,500 aggregate on all PAC money in one election. Party-controlled PACs are not subject to limits as of May 9, 2025. The primary and the general are separate elections for these limits, and the figures are re-indexed every two years, so check the Registry's table in January 2027.

Reporting: In an election year, quarterly statements are due April 10, July 10, October 10, and January 25 (the fourth quarter runs through January 15), plus a pre-primary and a pre-general statement due 7 days before each election. If neither contributions nor expenditures exceeded $1,000 in a reporting period, you file a short statement instead of the itemized one (TCA 2-10-107). Confirm the exact due dates for your election with the county election commission.

Local reports are filed in whatever form your county election commission accepts; many still take paper. The Registry's online system is for statewide and legislative filers.

Limits and thresholds change. Treat the figures here as a starting point and confirm the current schedule with Tennessee Registry of Election Finance (Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance) before you accept a check. Our campaign finance basics guide covers the bookkeeping every local candidate needs on day one.

How voting works in Tennessee

In person, with excuse-required absentee voting. Tennessee votes in person, either during early voting or on election day. Voting by mail is limited to voters who fit a listed excuse, the most common being age 60 or older, being outside the county during the entire early-voting period and election day, illness or disability, or being a full-time student outside the county. Absentee ballots are returned by mail only.

Early voting: Early voting starts 20 days before election day and ends 5 days before (for the November 3, 2026 election: October 14 through October 29). The county election commission sets sites and hours.
Mail ballots: Excuse required. Request a by-mail ballot from your county election commission no earlier than 90 days and no later than 10 days before the election; the request must include your social security number, date of birth, and reason. Voters 60 and older qualify automatically. Ballots must be returned by mail, not dropped off.
Registration deadline: 30 days before the election (TCA 2-2-109); mail forms must be postmarked 30 days out. For November 3, 2026 the deadline was October 5.
Same-day registration: No

Knowing who has already voted: The county election commission is the source. Many post daily early-voting turnout during the window (Davidson County updates its report every morning with the prior day's totals by site and posts nightly counts on social media) and will sell the list of who has voted early or by mail for the current election under the same TCA 2-2-138 political-use certification as the voter file (Rutherford County lists early-voter lists at 2 cents per voter). Ask your commission on the first day of early voting how often it can cut the list; some do it daily. The Secretary of State publishes only post-election turnout reports.

Local government in Tennessee: what you can run for

Tennessee has counties, cities and towns, and school districts, and no townships. Counties are run by an elected county mayor (or county executive) and a county legislative body, the county commission, plus separately elected constitutional officers: sheriff, trustee, register of deeds, county clerk, circuit court clerk, assessor of property, and in many counties a road superintendent. A few counties have consolidated city-county metropolitan governments, the largest being Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County with its Metro Council. Cities and towns operate under their own charters with a mayor and council, board of aldermen, or commission. Public schools are run by county school systems, some city school systems, and special school districts created by private act; all have elected boards.

County mayor / county executive
County commissioner
Sheriff
County trustee
Register of deeds
County clerk
Circuit court clerk
Assessor of property
Road superintendent / highway chief
Constable
Mayor
City council member / alderman / city commissioner
Metro council member (Nashville-Davidson)
School board member (county or city system)
Special school district board member

When local elections happen: County offices are elected in August of even years (August 6, 2026, then August 3, 2028), with any county party primaries on the first Tuesday in May. City elections run on the city's charter date; the Secretary of State's 2026 schedule shows municipal elections in March, April, May, June, August, and November, most of them alongside the August 6 or November 3 state elections. Cities with odd-year charters vote in 2027; check the state's local election schedule when it is posted. State and federal general elections are in November of even years.

Running your Tennessee campaign on Culper

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

Tennessee questions we get asked

Where does a city council candidate in Tennessee file to get on the ballot?

With the election commission of the county you live in. Pick up an original nominating petition there (up to 90 days before the deadline), collect at least 25 signatures of registered voters who can vote for the office, and return it by 12:00 noon on the qualifying deadline. There is no filing fee anywhere in Tennessee. If your city spans more than one county, you also file a certified duplicate with each other county's commission.

When is the Tennessee qualifying deadline for a 2027 city election?

Noon on the third Thursday in the third calendar month before the election (TCA 2-5-101). For a Thursday, August 5, 2027 election that is May 20, 2027; for a Tuesday, November 2, 2027 election it is August 19, 2027. Withdrawal closes at noon seven days later. Offices on the even-year August ballot use an earlier deadline (noon, March 10 in 2026), so do not assume the third-Thursday rule for a county race.

How do I get the voter list for my Tennessee district and what does it cost?

Order it from the county election commission and sign the political-purposes certification required by TCA 2-2-138. Prices are set locally: Davidson County charges a $40 setup fee for a file under 100,000 voters, Rutherford County $50 for any size, with voting history included. Ask for the file cut to your district. A statewide file is available from the Division of Elections at a price set by the Secretary of State.

Who do Tennessee local candidates file campaign finance reports with?

The county election commission where the election is held, not the Registry of Election Finance (TCA 2-10-105). Certify a political treasurer there before you raise or spend anything, then file quarterly statements in the election year plus pre-primary and pre-general statements 7 days before each election. State contribution limits apply: $1,900 per election from an individual and $10,100 from a PAC for 2025-2026.

Can Tennessee voters vote by mail, and how do I know who has already voted?

Only with an excuse; the big categories are voters 60 and older, voters away from the county for the whole early-voting period, and illness or disability. Most votes are cast during the early voting window, which opens 20 days before election day and closes 5 days before. Your county election commission posts daily early-voting totals and can sell the list of who has voted so far under the same political-use certification as the voter file.

When are local elections held in Tennessee?

County offices: August of even years, with county party primaries (if held) on the first Tuesday in May. City and special school district elections: whenever the charter says, which in 2026 ranged from March to November, with most held with the August or November state elections. Tennessee has no statewide odd-year election, so a 2027 race in Tennessee means your city runs on an odd-year charter.

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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.