Petition Signing Information:

Brief overview of the petition process for potential candidates.

To get on the ballot the normal way get a petition from the court house, go around your area and get the number of signatures required on the petition from residents in your area and then turn the signed petition back in to the Court House. They notarize the petition in the court house so you do not have to pay out any money to do that.

If you are running as a democrat than only democrats can sign your petition.  And it is the same for republicans.  If you are running as a republican than only republicans can sign you petitions.  So if your best friend is a Democrat and you are a Republican and he wants to sign your petition he can’t unless he becomes a Republican which is easily done by changing affiliation in the court house.

If you are running for a position in a township or borough than only residents in those areas may sign your petition.  If you are running for a county wide office than all county residents can sign it they are of the same party.

There is a time frame in which you can go around and get signatures and this year it is Feb. 19 to March 12.  If you think three weeks is a lot of time don’t. Sometimes there are major snow storms and it is difficult getting up the lanes of different houses to get petitions signed. Also sometimes you have to stay at a person’s house for an hour or so.  It is not always a quick in and out process.

If you have people helping you, you need to make sure they know how to do it correctly and your petitions get back to you in plenty of time. 

As always there are rules for signing petitions. You may use blue and black ink, no ditto marks. 

Each office has a different number of signatures you must get a minimum number.  We suggest that you always get more than the minimum. They could take some of the names off your petition. The number of signatures you need to have varies with each position.

And of course there are always exceptions and it is called “cross filing”. That is for persons running for judgeships and school boards.  If you are running for these positions, than you can have a democrat carry your “democrat petition” and a republican carry your “republican” petition.

More helpful tips about filing petitions to get on the ballot ....

Most common errors:

Candidate does not have the qualifications to run.

Copying the petitions the wrong way.

Failure to file on time.  Don't wait to the last day to file or the last hour of the day.  Keep in mind their may be a snow storm or may be a lot of people coming in at the last minute.

Failure to fill in the top of the petition.

Signer fails to write and print name as registered. 

Get twice the number of signatures needed.

Sometimes with more than one carrier there may be duplicate signatures.

Make sure the people signing reside in your district.