Guide 14

Michigan Nominating Petitions: A 2027 Guide for City Candidates

A Michigan nominating petition is the set of signed sheets that, together with an Affidavit of Identity, puts a city candidate's name on the ballot. In 2027, the candidates who file them are running in cities whose charters set elections in odd-numbered years, for offices such as mayor, city clerk and city council. The number of signatures comes from the city charter or, if the charter sets none, from a state chart based on population. That chart sets a maximum as well as a minimum: a nonpartisan candidate in a city of 10,000 to 24,999 people needs at least 40 valid signatures and may file no more than 100.

In a city that nominates at the August primary, petitions are due to the city clerk by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2027. In a city whose charter nominates by petition straight to the November ballot, they are due by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20, 2027. Both dates are computed from state law, because we found no 2027 calendar from the Michigan Bureau of Elections. Signatures go on paper, in the physical presence of the circulator (the person who collects them), and each sheet ends with a certificate the circulator signs after the last signature. Confirm your city's schedule, your signature number and your deadline with your city clerk before you begin.

The rules below come from the Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL), the Bureau of Elections' Election Officials Manual (Chapter 3, Candidate Filings) and its forms. Two city clerk pages from 2025, Holland and Grosse Pointe Farms, appear as named examples only.

Who files a nominating petition in Michigan in 2027

Michigan elects school boards, townships, villages and judges in even-numbered years, so 2027 is a city year, and only in some cities. The Bureau of Elections explains that some cities "conduct their elections in odd-numbered years with or without a primary, while others have moved their elections to the even year primary and general election ballots," and it advises consulting "your city charter and any associated resolution to determine your schedule." Ask your city clerk whether your city holds a regular election in 2027 and which seats are on the ballot.

City candidates file with the city clerk. The Bureau of Elections lists city offices as "Mayor, City Clerk, City Council, and other offices provided for in the city charter." Under the Home Rule City Act, each charter decides how its officers are nominated: by partisan or nonpartisan primary, by petition, or by convention (MCL 117.3). State law also says a city officer's qualifications, nomination and election follow the charter, except where specific election law sections apply (MCL 168.321).

For some township, county and school offices, Michigan allows a $100 nonrefundable fee in place of a petition. For city offices, the Bureau of Elections says to "refer to the city charter," so ask your clerk whether a fee is an option for your office.

Which deadline applies to you

Your charter determines your track. All dates are based on state law and should be confirmed with your clerk.

Each filing deadline is the fifteenth Tuesday before the election the candidates are nominated for. A charter that elects any candidate who wins more than 50 percent at the primary also uses the April 20 deadline (MCL 168.644e). The May column applies only where a city still holds its regular election in May and its charter nominates by petition directly for that election, which your clerk can confirm.

A primary is not always held. If, when filing closes, no more than twice as many candidates as seats have filed nonpartisan petitions for an office, the primary for that office is not held, and the candidates with valid petitions become the nominees, unless the charter provides otherwise (MCL 168.644f).

How many signatures you need

If your charter sets a number, it controls. If it does not, the minimum comes from the state chart in MCL 168.544f, based on "the population of the district involved according to the most recent federal census" (MCL 168.644f).

Charters can change both the numbers and where signatures come from. Holland's 2025 election page required mayoral and at-large council candidates to file "not less than 60 signatures of qualified electors with at least 10 from each of the six wards," and ward candidates "not less than 20 and not more than 40" from their ward. Grosse Pointe Farms required "no less than 50 valid signatures and no more than 70" for mayor and council in 2025. Ask your clerk for your own 2027 numbers.

The maximum is firm. The Bureau of Elections says a candidate "may only submit up to the maximum number of signatures that may be submitted for that office." If you are short before the deadline, you may file supplemental signatures, but your total may not exceed the maximum. Our explainer on how many signatures you need to run for office in Michigan goes through the chart, the charter examples and how to set a target.

The petition sheet

Michigan law fixes the petition's form. Each sheet is 8-1/2 by 14 inches, with "nominating petition" printed in 24-point bold type and the warning in 12-point bold (MCL 168.544c). A nonpartisan petition adds the word "nonpartisan" under the heading and "shall contain no reference to any political party" (MCL 168.544a). City clerks must give candidates a reasonable number of sheets at no charge, and commercial election suppliers also sell them. Use the type your clerk tells you to use: a City/Township Nonpartisan Nominating Petition, a City/Township Partisan Nominating Petition, or, for a candidate with no party in a partisan city, a City/Township Qualifying Petition. A sheet of the wrong type is invalid, along with every signature on it.

Each sheet has four parts:

1. The heading. The candidate's name and address, the office including any ward or district, and the date of the election, plus the party on a partisan petition. The circulator also enters the county and the city or township of circulation. The candidate fills in the heading unless the charter has the clerk do it.
2. The warning. A printed statement that knowingly signing more petitions for the same office than there are people to be elected, signing more than once, or signing someone else's name violates Michigan election law.
3. The signer lines. Signature, printed name, street address or rural route, ZIP code and date of signing.
4. The certificate of circulator. The circulator's statement that each signature was made in their presence, with their printed name, signature, date and residence address.

We go through each part line by line in filling out and circulating a Michigan nominating petition.

Who can sign and who can circulate

Signers. "Only persons registered to vote in the jurisdiction and, if applicable, district where the candidate seeks office may sign." A signature counts if the signer was registered in the right city, and in the right ward or district for a ward seat, on the date they signed. Each sheet may be circulated in only one city or township, and every signer must be registered in the one named in the heading (MCL 168.544c). If your city crosses a county line, each signer must sign a sheet that lists their own county.

A voter may not sign more petitions for the same office than there are people to be elected to it (MCL 168.544c). For a single seat such as mayor, that means one candidate's petition. Signers sign their own names. Another person, including the circulator, may fill in the signer's address or print the date, and a person with a disability may sign with the mark used on their voter registration or Michigan driver's license or ID. You may sign your own petition, and a circulator who meets the signer rules may sign the sheet they are circulating.

Circulators. Circulators "are not required to be registered voters or a resident of Michigan. However, circulators must be at least 18 years old and must be a United States citizen." A circulator who lives outside Michigan must check the out-of-state line on the certificate, or every signature on that sheet is invalid. Only one circulator may work on each sheet. Our general post on recruiting and training petition circulators uses Illinois examples, but its approach to briefing volunteers applies in Michigan too.

In person, on paper

The Bureau of Elections is direct about this: "A person may only sign a petition sheet in the physical presence of the circulator ... A signature made outside of sight of a circulator, including a virtual signature, is not valid. A circulator may not leave a petition sheet unattended at any time." There is no electronic signature option for candidate petitions.

The circulator signs and dates the certificate only after collecting the last signature on the sheet. State law prints the instruction on the form ("Do not sign or date certificate until after circulating petition") and says a circulator may not collect signatures after signing the certificate (MCL 168.544c). Any signature dated after the certificate is invalid, and a sheet with an incomplete or undated certificate is not counted. A false certificate is a misdemeanor.

The Affidavit of Identity

The petition is filed together with the Affidavit of Identity, and the affidavit is the part that is notarized. Use the Bureau of Elections' "Affidavit of Identity and Receipt of Filing" form and file two copies, or an original and a photocopy (MCL 168.558). It states your name and registered address, the office, the election date, the term, and exactly how your name should appear on the ballot, and you swear that you are a United States citizen who meets the qualifications for the office. The date of notarization must match the date you sign, and a false statement is perjury. A filed affidavit cannot be altered; to correct an error, you complete and notarize a new one before the deadline.

Signature checks and challenges

After you file, the city clerk reviews the petition. A whole sheet is invalidated if it is the wrong type, its heading is incomplete, or its circulator's certificate is blank, incomplete or improperly completed. A single signature is invalidated if the signer's address or date is incomplete, the address is outside the city or district or outside the city named in the heading, or the signature is dated after the certificate. A rejected signature does not affect the others on the sheet.

The clerk then checks each remaining signer's registration and compares the signature with the one on file, rejecting only signatures that differ "in significant and obvious respects." Initials, titles and illegible handwriting are not reasons to reject a matching signature, and an address that differs from the registration record still counts if it is inside the city.

Signatures may be challenged in writing up to seven days after the filing deadline, and a challenge must name the specific signatures (MCL 168.552). Common problems you can prevent while collecting include:

• signers who are not registered, or are registered outside the city or ward;
• missing street addresses, post office boxes in place of addresses, or missing dates;
• a person who signed twice, or signed for more candidates than there are seats;
• a sheet listing the wrong county for a signer in a city that crosses county lines; and
• a certificate signed before the last signature, or left incomplete.

How many signatures to collect above the minimum

Because a clerk can strike signatures, you want more than the minimum, and in Michigan the maximum caps how many more. Size the margin to your risk. A first-time candidate with new volunteers has more reason to aim high than a candidate whose sheets were all gathered by one careful circulator. Our general guide on how many signatures to collect above the minimum uses Illinois examples, so apply your Michigan maximum in place of the ranges it describes.

Collecting signatures door to door

Door-to-door collection suits a Michigan city petition. When you work from a list of registered voters in your city or ward, each signature comes from an address you have already placed inside the district. If your city crosses a county line, giving each circulator an area inside one county keeps the county on each sheet correct. And a petition visit is often the first conversation a campaign has with a voter.

To turn your target into doors, track two rates over your first few sessions: the share of doors where someone answers, and the share of those people who sign. As an illustration only, if someone answers at about one door in three and about half of them sign, each signature takes about six doors, and a target of 70 points to roughly 420 doors. Replace the illustration with your own numbers as soon as you have them.

1. Ask your city or county clerk how to obtain a list of registered voters in your city or ward, and confirm the ward boundary.
2. Divide the list into turfs (small groups of nearby streets) that one circulator can cover in a session, each inside one county.
3. Give each circulator their own sheets, with the heading filled in before any voter signs.
4. Record which doors were visited and what happened at each one.
5. Send circulators back to the doors where no one was home before opening new turf.
6. Collect sheets after each session and check every line while the circulator still remembers the street.

This is the part of the work that Beacon is built for. Draw each circulator's turf on the map, inside your city or ward and inside one county, and assign it to that circulator. Add your contacts, and when a walk list is downloaded its stops are in walking order by distance. Beacon routes circulators door to door and records which doors were visited and the result at each one: contacted, not home, refused, come back later and the other door codes. At each door, the circulator can note "signed" or "not signed" in the door result's Notes field, and turf completion percentages and the leaderboard show which areas still need work. If a circulator loses signal partway through a shift, the results they enter are queued and sent when the signal returns. The signed sheet remains the only legal record of each signature. Every plan includes unlimited canvassers, so adding circulators does not change your price, and live GPS of circulators in the field is available on the Growth plan and above.

Filing day

• Where: your city clerk's office. Some clerks ask candidates to schedule a filing appointment, so call ahead.
• What: two copies of the notarized Affidavit of Identity and all of your petition sheets. The filing is complete only when every part is in the clerk's physical possession. A mailed filing that arrives after the deadline is late, whatever the postmark.
• Who: you, or someone delivering a complete filing that you signed before a notary.
• When: by 4 p.m. on your deadline. Ask for a filing receipt showing the date, the time and the number of sheets.

Before you go, review every sheet: the heading, the county and city at the top, each signer line, and the circulator's certificate. Our general checklist on how to check your petition before filing was written for Illinois, but most of its checks apply to Michigan sheets. Keep a copy of every sheet and your own count. Candidate filings are public records, and your own records will help you answer a challenge quickly.

After you file

Mark the withdrawal and challenge deadlines for your track and keep those days clear. Once filing closes, ask the clerk whether your race will have a primary. After that, your attention turns to the campaign, and every household your circulators visited is one you have already met.

One caution applies. A signature on a nominating petition is not permission to text someone. If you want to text supporters later, never add anything to the petition sheet; keep a separate sign-up sheet that says plainly the person agrees to receive campaign texts, with a dated line. Only people who agreed in that way should receive texts. CampaignCNX+, a separate texting product, can send those texts, and its guide to running for local office in Michigan covers the campaign after filing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I collect Michigan petition signatures online?

No. A person may sign only in the physical presence of the circulator, and a virtual signature is not valid. Digital tools can help you plan which doors to visit and record which ones you reached, but the signatures go on the paper sheet.

How many signatures do I need to run for city council in Michigan?

It depends on your charter. If the charter sets no number, a nonpartisan candidate uses the state chart: for example, 6 to 20 in a city under 10,000 people, or 40 to 100 in a city of 10,000 to 24,999. Ask your city clerk for the number for your seat.

When is the 2027 filing deadline?

In cities with an August primary, 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2027. In cities whose charters nominate by petition straight to November, 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20, 2027. Both dates are computed from state law, so confirm yours with your city clerk.

Does a Michigan nominating petition need to be notarized?

The petition sheets do not have a notary section; the circulator signs a certificate on each sheet instead. Your Affidavit of Identity, filed with the petition, must be signed in front of a notary.

Can I file more signatures than the maximum?

No. The Bureau of Elections says a candidate may submit only up to the maximum for the office. Strike doubtful lines and stay within the limit.

Plan your Michigan petition drive with Beacon

A strong petition comes from visiting the right doors, keeping each sheet inside one city and county, and knowing which streets still need a visit. Beacon gives your circulators turf on a map, walk lists in walking order by distance, and a record of every door's result, with unlimited canvassers on every plan. Start a 14-day trial and have your first turf drawn well before your filing deadline.