Candidate Oath

To qualify, you must complete the Candidate Oath and Statement of Party for the office you are seeking.

• Nonpartisan Office: DS-DE 302NP - PDF
• County Judge: DS-DE 303JU - PDF
• School Board: DS-DE 304SB - PDF
• Filing as write-in (regardless of office): DS-DE 301C - PDF

Soil and water conservation district candidates must file a statement affirming they meet the requirements of section 582.19(1), F.S.

Candidates for Mayor and City Commissioner must file a statement affirming they meet the 365 day residency requirements of Article 2, Chapter 7 of the Code of General Ordinances of the City of Tallahassee.

Financial Disclosure Requirements

As part of qualifying, you must satisfy financial disclosure requirements. The specific form depends on the office sought.

• Mayor and City Commissioner: Form 1
  • On 6/10/24 Judge Melissa Damian of the Southern District of Florida issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of elements of SB774 / Ch 2023-049, Laws of Florida, which made changes to financial disclosure requirements of municipal candidates.  
  • Pending the outcome of Loper v Lukis, a Form 1 is the correct form for municipal candidates.
  • This is a topic of active litigation, and subject to change pending court action.
• County Commission: Form 6    
• School Board: Form 6 
• County Judge: Form 6 
• Soil and Water Conservation: Form 1
• Community Development District: Form 1

The way in which the candidate satisfies the financial disclosure requirements depends on if they currently hold a public position or not.

• Candidates who currently hold a public position that requires the e-filing of a Form 1 or Form 6 have the option to file the "Verification or Receipt of Filing" when they qualify. This document is available for printing from the filer's dashboard in Electronic Financial Disclosure Management System (EFDMS).
• Non-incumbent candidates, who do not otherwise hold a public position that requires the e-filing of a Form 1 or Form 6, do not file their disclosure electronically with the Commission and therefore cannot generate an e-filing verification. Those candidates complete their disclosure in EFDMS in the same manner as other candidates. Once they are finished with their disclosure, they must sign, print, and file the form with the qualifying officer. The form will have a watermark on it that reads “For Qualifying Purposes Only.”

Candidates must satisfy the financial disclosure requirement by including the relevant documentation as part of their qualifying materials.  

Forms and additional materials can be found on the Commission of Ethics Website. 

Candidate Qualifying Fee

Your qualifying fee is determined by the office you are seeking. If you are running for office with a party affiliation, there is an additional party assessment fee. You can view the specific fee for each office on the chart at the end of this document.

The qualifying fee must be:

• Paid by a properly executed check drawn on the campaign account. Personal checks, cashier’s checks, or cash are not acceptable.
  • However, Soil and Water Conservation Commission and Community Development District candidates can pay by personal check, cashier’s check, or cash.
• Signed by the campaign treasurer or deputy treasurer. A check signed by a candidate who has not been designated as the treasurer or deputy treasurer is not acceptable.
• Made payable to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Office.

We cannot return the qualifying fee unless you withdraw, with a signed written statement, before the close of qualifying.

We will immediately notify you if your qualifying fee check is returned by the bank for any reason. Notwithstanding the end of qualifying, you will have 48 hours from the time such notification is received, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, to pay the fee with a cashier’s check purchased from funds of the campaign account.

You can waive the qualifying fee (and party assessment, if applicable) by gathering the signatures of voters on candidate petitions.

If you intend to qualify as a write-in candidate, there is no qualifying fee.

Petitioning

You can wave the qualifying fee by gathering signed Candidate Petition Forms (DS-D 104) - PDF. The number of petitions you need depends on which office you are seeking. Voters must live within the district for your office to sign your petition. The “Running for Local Office in Leon County” section at the end of this document lists the minimum number of valid petitions for each office. If you are unable to collect the required number of signatures, you can choose to pay the qualifying fee instead.

You are strongly encouraged to gather more petitions than the minimum. Plan for some of your petitions to be invalid due to errors. If a petition form contains incorrect information or it is not complete, it will not count towards qualifying.

Our office will verify that your petitions are complete and correct. The deadline to submit petitions for verification is noon, 28 days before the start of qualifying. We strongly encourage you to submit your petitions well in advance of the deadline.

You must pay a petition verification fee of ten cents per petition to our office. The verification fee is due at the time you submit your petitions. If you are unable to pay the verification fee, you may file an Affidavit of Undue Burden (DS-DE 19A) - PDF.

You may have each individual petition reviewed or have only a random sample reviewed. If you decide to use random sampling, you only pay the verification fee for the sample of your petitions that we review. To use random sampling, you must provide 15% more petitions than the minimum, and all petitions must be dropped off at one time.

Judicial Candidates

• Petition Deadline: Noon, 3/23/2026
• Qualifying Deadline: Noon, 4/20/2026 - Noon 4/24/2026
  • Starting on 4/6/2024 we can accept and hold qualifying documents. The documents will not be processed until qualifying begins.

Local Candidates

• Petitions Deadline: Noon 5/11/2026
• Qualifying Deadline: Noon 6/8/2026 - Noon 6/12/2026
  • Starting on 5/25/2026 we can accept and hold qualifying documents. The documents will not be processed until qualifying begins.

Campaign Finance Reporting Dates