Create an Election Calendar for Your Race
Money makes a campaign easier, but time is the great equalizer. Here's how to find your state's election calendar, pull the dates that matter, and turn them into a working plan.
A lot of candidates will tell you that money is your campaign’s most important resource. Having more funds certainly makes things easier, but TIME is the great equalizer in any campaign. When it’s gone, it’s gone — and all the money in the world can’t buy you another day of voter contact. When managed properly, and with good planning, time will be your greatest asset.
Every year, each state produces an election calendar with events set by state law. And while some states do things differently than others — primaries and caucuses on different dates, different paperwork rules — they all typically follow the same process.
For example, in Pennsylvania, nomination petitions can’t be circulated earlier than 13 weeks before the primary, and they must be finalized no later than 10 weeks before the primary.
That means, as a candidate in PA, you have just 3 weeks to circulate petitions and get all the signatures you need to qualify for the ballot. Typically those dates fall toward the end of winter, and gathering petition signatures in the snow can make finding volunteers a real challenge.
Fall short on signatures and you’re not a candidate. Turn in petitions late and you’re not a candidate.
Voting requirements have the same kind of hard line. Absentee ballots need to be turned in by a certain date — if they’re not, those votes don’t count.
I’ve worked on races that were decided by just a handful of votes. If a few people had decided to turn their ballots in late, or not at all, those races might have gone another way.
The election calendar is the one thing by which every candidate must abide. Whether you’re running for school director or President of the United States — same rules, same paperwork, same dates.
It doesn’t matter if you’re running for school director in a town of 500 people or if you’re running for President of the United States — we all follow the same rules, turn in paperwork by the same dates, and vote at the same time. Run afoul of official rules and deadlines and you can find your candidacy invalidated and your name stripped from the ballot.
So before starting your race, make sure to download your state’s election calendar and double-check the deadlines for every task you’ll need to complete. You can use our calendar creation worksheet to keep track of the suggested dates for your race, log the time between events, and know when important political deadlines are approaching.
Searching for Your State’s Election Calendar
Election dates are usually enshrined in state law and administered by the Secretary of State through its elections board. To start, visit your Secretary of State’s website or run a web search for:
[insert year] [insert state name] election calendar
Like this:
2024 Pennsylvania election calendar
The top result for that search is Pennsylvania’s official page with important dates for the 2024 elections in table format. On that page you’ll also find a downloadable PDF calendar with important dates, upcoming elections, special elections, and other helpful voting links. Your state will have a similar page and a similar PDF available for download.
Some states include much more info than others, and a 20-page election calendar is not unheard of. There are a few dates you’ll really need to focus on, and we recommend a handful of them in the Election Calendar Worksheet. Download it below and use it as a guide to fill in those dates for your state and for the year in which you are running.
Election Calendar Dates to Focus On
When you’re starting out, pay close attention to dates related to petition circulation or any requirements you must fulfill to get on the ballot. Remember: you’re not an official candidate until you get on the ballot, no matter how much money you raise or how many volunteers sign up to help.
If your state has a primary or caucus that determines who appears on the general-election ballot, you’ll want to pay close attention to those dates too. Much of the early activity of your campaign will be focused on doing what is necessary to win that primary and continue on to the general.
You’ll want to track the general election date too. This is usually a single day in November, but some states hold runoff elections that can happen after the general depending on how many votes are tallied for each candidate during the general. Again, that information will be supplied in your state’s election calendar.
A good election calendar will list the following dates:
- Petition circulation dates
- Registration dates (for primary or caucuses and general elections)
- Voter registration deadlines
- Absentee ballot deadlines (both the application and the return)
- Military or overseas voting deadlines
- Early voting dates (mail-in or in-person)
- Dates and times that ballot drop-off locations are available, if any
- Election dates (primary, caucus, general, runoffs)
Once you’ve got the important dates, record them on your worksheet and keep them handy. Circulate the dates to volunteers, family, and helpers so everyone is aware of the relevant deadlines.
Using the Calendar to Calculate Time You Have to Work
The Election Calendar Worksheet lets you enter dates and then calculates the time between them — so you know exactly how much time you have to complete each task. This is particularly helpful when scheduling volunteer shifts.
In PA, candidates have 3 weeks to complete nomination petitions to get on the primary ballot. If you’re running for county judge, you need 500 signatures.
The goal should be to collect 20–50% more than required so any potential opponent has a hard time challenging your signatures and getting you thrown off the ballot. So in this case you’d be looking to get at least 600–750 signatures. You’ve got 21 days to collect them — that’s 35 signatures per day.
At a collection rate of 10 signatures per hour, that’s around 3 hours of work each day, or about 75 hours total of canvassing.
If you’re working a 9-to-5 job while campaigning, that’s a tough endeavor solo — so you recruit volunteers. A typical 2-hour shift per volunteer would require 35–37 shifts. If you can get 10 volunteers, each one does roughly one shift a week for three weeks.
Distributing the work that way gets the job done while leaving you time to focus on message development and fundraising.
Calculating Vote Goals
After you develop your win number and vote-get goals for each precinct, you’ll use the calendar again to figure out how much time you have between the end of petition circulation and the date of the primary. You’ll do a similar work-effort calculation.
For example, if your research suggests you need 5,000 votes to win and you’ve got 5 months to contact voters, you need to identify 1,000 likely voters per month — and you can schedule your campaign activities accordingly.
If after 3 months you’ve identified 7,500 likely voters, you’re in great shape. If you’ve only identified 2,000, you may need to double the effort with the remaining time, or you might find success in the primary just out of your grasp.
Penalties for Not Following the Election Calendar
When petition signatures get challenged, it’s done in court. When an opponent tries to have you disqualified based on eligibility requirements, it’s done in court. Election cases take priority over other cases because of their time sensitivity — but historically, there is little wiggle room for those who don’t follow the rules. Turning in petitions late will likely result in disqualification. Turning in too few signatures will result in disqualification. The point is: follow the rules and stick to the election calendar.
Summary
Understanding the important election dates in your state — and for your race specifically — is one of the earliest tasks you’ll complete during your campaign. Use the Election Calendar Worksheet to keep track of dates and to calculate the time you have for the work in between.
With some planning and diligence during the early parts of your campaign, you’ll have more than enough time to complete the necessary tasks — and, hopefully, enough support to help you get things done when time gets tight.
