Petitions

Filling Out an Illinois Nominating Petition, Part by Part

By Beacon Team October 3, 2026

Part of a guide This article is part of Illinois Nominating Petitions: A Guide for Candidates and Committeepersons, our full treatment of nominating petitions in Illinois.

An Illinois nominating petition sheet has four parts: the heading at the top, the signer lines in the middle, the circulator's statement at the bottom, and the notary's section that goes with it. Each part has its own rules and its own person responsible for it. The candidate fills in the heading before the sheet goes out, each voter signs their own line, the circulator completes and swears to the statement, and a notary signs off on that oath. After that, the sheets are numbered and fastened for filing.

This post walks through each part in that order, using the State Board of Elections' 2027 Candidate's Guide and the Election Code. Exact field labels differ from form to form, so get the official form for your office from your election authority or the State Board (school board candidates, for example, use SBE Form P-7 for at-large seats or P-7A for districts) and follow its labels. For signature numbers and the 2027 calendar, see our guide to Illinois nominating petitions.

Before you start: the paper itself

Blank forms may be reproduced before circulating, so you can print as many as you need (Guide p. 21). Two things to settle first:

One size. All sheets you file must be "all one uniform size" (Guide p. 19). Print every sheet on the same paper.
Originals at the end. Every signature on the sheets you file, from the voters, the circulator and the notary, must be original (Guide p. 21). You can copy blanks; you cannot file copies of signed sheets.

Plan to use pen with dark ink throughout. Pencil is not prohibited for signers, but the Guide says "it is advisable to use a pen with dark ink" (Guide p. 65), and a petition is a document someone may read line by line under pressure.

Part 1: The heading

The heading is the top of the sheet, and it tells every signer what they are signing. It must include:

The election you are running in.
Your name, exactly as it will appear on your Statement of Candidacy and any Loyalty Oath you file. A mismatch "can result in the candidate not being certified" (Guide pp. 19 to 20). No titles, degrees or slogans (Guide p. 20).
The office you are seeking.
Your party, when the office is partisan. Nonpartisan offices such as school board have no party label.
Your residence.

Three rules govern the heading (Guide p. 19; 10 ILCS 5/10-4):

It must be filled in before the sheet is circulated.
It must be the same on every sheet.
It cannot be changed once the petition is filed (Guide p. 19).

The practical way to meet all three is to fill in every heading yourself, in one sitting, from one written version of your name and address, before any sheet goes to a circulator. Some campaigns print the heading directly onto the forms so every sheet is identical. Either way, a circulator should never receive a sheet with a blank top.

Part 2: The signer lines

Each line on the body of the sheet belongs to one voter. Follow the column labels on your form; what follows is what the Guide and statute require of each line.

The signature

The voter signs in their own hand. "A signer must sign their own signature on the petition, meaning they cannot sign for someone else, such as a spouse, family members, or other persons in the household" (Guide p. 21). Nicknames are fine if the voter can be identified and is lawfully registered (Guide p. 65).

The address

The address on the line must be where the signer is registered to vote, inside the district you are running in (Guide pp. 21 to 22). It needs:

a street address or rural route,
the city, village or town,
the county, and
the state (Guide p. 22; 10 ILCS 5/10-4).

Standard abbreviations are acceptable. If every signer on the sheet lives in the same city, county and state, those parts may be pre-printed (Guide p. 22). P.O. boxes are generally not allowed, with narrow exceptions such as the Address Confidentiality program (Guide p. 65).

Who can fill in what

The Guide allows the circulator to "fill in any missing information except a voter's signature" (Guide p. 65). Ditto marks are not prohibited, but the Guide suggests avoiding them (Guide p. 65). In practice, the cleanest line is one where the voter writes everything legibly and the circulator reads it back before leaving.

Who belongs on the line

Only voters who can sign for your office. On a party primary petition, that means the party's qualified primary electors in the district, and a voter "may not sign petitions for or be a candidate in the primary of more than one party" (10 ILCS 5/7-10). On nonpartisan and independent petitions, a voter can sign as many petitions for an office as there are seats to be elected (Guide p. 21). The circulator may sign as a voter on their own sheet if they are registered in the district (Guide p. 67).

Part 3: The circulator's statement

The bottom of every sheet carries the circulator's statement. The person who signs it is, by definition, the circulator of that sheet: "No one may be considered a circulator of any petition page except the person who signs the circulator's statement" (Guide p. 21). One sheet, one circulator.

The statement certifies (Guide p. 21; 10 ILCS 5/10-4):

The circulator's address. The Guide's FAQ says it must be their current address (Guide p. 66).
Their age. At least 18, or 18 by the date of the upcoming consolidated election.
Their citizenship. A U.S. citizen. They do not need to be a registered voter and can live outside the district, county or state (Guide pp. 21, 66).
That every signature was signed in their presence.
That the signatures are genuine.
That, to the best of their knowledge, the signers were registered voters of the political subdivision with correct addresses.
The circulation dates, in one of three forms: the dates circulated, the first and last dates of circulation, or a certification that no signature was gathered more than 90 days before the last filing day.

Because the dates go on the statement, ask every circulator to keep a simple note of the first and last day each sheet was out. It takes ten seconds and saves guesswork at the notary.

Part 4: The notary

The circulator's statement "shall be sworn to and signed by a notary" (Guide p. 21); the statute says "sworn to before some officer authorized to administer oaths in this State" (10 ILCS 5/10-4). The circulator signs in front of the notary, who completes the notarial section.

A few points from the Guide (p. 67):

The notary does not need to live in your county but must be authorized where the notarization happens.
Out-of-state notarizations are addressed under 765 ILCS 30/2; ask your election authority if this applies to you.
Whether a notary may also be a signer on the petition is unsettled. ISBE says "A cautious candidate might wish to avoid using a petition signer as the notary."

State Board staff will not notarize during filing periods (Guide, preface). Book a notary weekly while you circulate.

Part 5: Numbers and fastening

When you assemble the petition for filing, the sheets are "numbered consecutively, beginning with the top petition signature sheet as the number '1'" (Guide p. 19), and "neatly fastened together in book form at one edge in a secure and suitable manner." The Guide notes that paper clips and clipboards are not secure ways to fasten petitions (Guide p. 19), and the statute forbids pasting sheets end to end into a roll (10 ILCS 5/10-4).

If you or a circulator strike a signature before filing, only the circulator or the candidate may do it. They initial at the strike and complete a Certificate of Deletions listing the page and line (SBE Form P-2A); independents also file Form P-2B (Guide pp. 22, 67). Number the sheets after any strikes are done, once, in the order you will file them.

Match the sheets to the streets

Pre-printing the city, county and state on a sheet only works if every signer on that sheet lives there. In a district that crosses a municipal or county line, that means each circulator's sheets should match a turf that stays on one side of the line.

This is a good job for your canvassing tool. Build your walk list from registered voters in the district, then split it into territories in Beacon so that each circulator's turf sits inside one municipality and county. Each circulator gets their territory on a map with an optimized door-to-door route, and works it offline if the signal drops. Hand them sheets pre-printed for that turf only. As they go, they mark each door's result (contacted, not home, refused, come back later and so on) and can answer a survey question such as "Signed petition: yes / no," so you know where each turf stands. The signature itself lives on the paper sheet, which remains the legal record.

A quick review before the sheet leaves your hands

Before giving a sheet to a circulator, confirm:

The heading is complete, identical to every other sheet, and in your exact ballot name.
Any pre-printed city, county and state match the turf it is going to.
The circulator knows they must witness every signature and keep the sheet with them.

Before a completed sheet goes into the filing stack, confirm:

Every line is legible and has a full address.
The circulator's statement is complete, including dates, and notarized.
Any strikes are initialed and listed on a Certificate of Deletions.

Our post on how to circulate a nominating petition in Illinois covers the drive itself, and our list of 12 mistakes that knock candidates off the ballot shows where sheets most often go wrong.

Put your petition turf on a map

A correctly filled sheet still needs the right doors. Our page on canvassing software for political campaigns shows how candidates organize petition season and the months after it. To split your district into circulator turfs and route every door, start a 14-day Beacon trial. Unlimited canvassers come with every plan.