Filing deadlines, signatures, and fees
The answer
Running for office takes either money, signatures, or both, and which one your state requires, and how much, varies by an order of magnitude. Utah's flat filing fee for the state legislature is $50. Florida charges 4% of the job's salary instead. The bigger surprise: even with these barriers, most local races in 2024 had no opponent at all. Low barriers to entry haven't been enough to produce real competition down the ballot.
How it actually works
States use one of four approaches to ballot access: a filing fee only, petition signatures only, both, or an either-or choice between the two. Nationally, 33 states require a filing fee for state legislature candidates, while the other 17 states plus DC, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands require petition signatures instead. Where fees are used, the Supreme Court, in Bullock v. Carter and Lubin v. Panish, requires states to offer a non-fee alternative for candidates who can't afford it, usually a larger signature petition.
The dollar amounts vary enormously. Florida charges legislative candidates 4% of the office's annual salary. Utah charges a flat $50 plus one-eighth of 1% of salary. Hawaii and Mississippi both charge a flat $250, the highest flat fee found. Montana charges just $15, the lowest. New Hampshire charges only $2 to file for state house. Three states, Alabama, Arkansas, and Delaware, let political parties set their own fee amounts rather than the state, so the cost can differ by party for the same office in the same state.1 Filing deadlines are set state by state and typically fall months before the primary, not the general election, so the window to get on the ballot closes long before most voters are paying attention to the race.
Despite these varying barriers, competition at the local level is strikingly thin. BallotReady found 70% of all races on the November 2024 ballot nationwide were uncontested, and that figure breaks down unevenly by level of government: 90% of regional races like district attorney, 74% of local races such as township and school board, 48% of state-level races, up from 41% in 2020, and just over 5% of federal congressional races, the highest uncontested rate for Congress in four election cycles.2 Local races, the ones with often the lowest filing barriers, are also the ones most likely to go unopposed.
Who holds the power
State legislatures set filing-fee amounts, signature thresholds, and deadlines, so ballot-access rules can themselves become a form of political control over who can realistically run.
Where you come in
If you're considering running for office, your state's specific filing fee, signature requirement, and deadline, usually months before the primary, are all publicly listed by your secretary of state's office. Check them early since deadlines are hard cutoffs. See how-to-file-to-run-for-local-office for the practical steps.
Ballot-access rules are actively contested. In the 2024 cycle, candidates were removed from ballots in some states over technical defects unrelated to signature counts, for instance a missing circulator affidavit on a petition form, showing that clearing the signature threshold doesn't guarantee ballot access if a procedural requirement is missed.
Related
Glossary: filing-deadline, ballot-access, petition-signature-requirement
See also: how-to-find-uncontested-races-near-you