DEADLINES:
March 18, 2024 @ Noon – April 4, 2024 @ 5pm
Filing Materials
In order to make the ballot, Democratic candidates must file the following materials with Sandy Marks, Party Chair, or an appointed proxy:
Declaration of Candidacy
The forms you need can be found in the City of Alexandria’s candidate bulletin, and also through ELECT, the state’s Elections Office.
Receipt for Candidate Filing Fee
This payment must be made at the City Treasurer’s Office at City Hall, and not to the Party.
Per statute, filing fees are set at 2% of the salary for the office sought:
- Mayor: $830
- Council: $750
Petition Signature Pages
To qualify for the Democratic Primary ballot, you must supply 125 valid petition signatures. We strongly recommend procuring over and above this number, in case some petitioners are stricken during the signature validation process. It is your responsibility to seek out and familiarize yourself with the rules for printing, witnessing, notarizing, and completing these pages, as well as what constitutes a valid signature. We are here to facilitate the democratic process according to the letter of the law, with the goal of seeing 100% of our candidates qualify.
Filing Procedure
On Monday, March 18, 2024, Chair Sandy Marks and Vice Chair Ricardo Alfaro will be ready to accept your candidate filing paperwork at the ADC office. You’ll sign in, we’ll check to make sure your submission is complete, and initial the sign-in sheet. This process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. If your submission is incomplete, you’ll have until Thursday, 4/4 at 5pm to return with completed paperwork.
ADC Office Location
(618 N. WASHINGTON ST.)
Our office is not staffed daily. We will have two 5 hour windows in which to file your paperwork without advance notice:
Monday, March 18th, 12pm-5pm
Thursday, April 4th, 12pm-5pm
It is absolutely acceptable to file outside of those dates and times, and we’ll do our best to reasonably accommodate you. To arrange a time to meet and file during this window, but not during office hours, please email Ricardo Alfaro at [email protected] and/or Sandy Marks at [email protected].
Petition Signature Validation
Your 125+ signatures will be run through our system, by ADC member volunteers, to make sure that each petitioner meets all requirements. Should a petitioner be found invalid, they will be stricken from the page, and we’ll move on to the next signature. This procedure will repeat until 125 signatures have been validated, at which point the validation process is complete. If you do not have 125 valid signatures, or there is another problem with your petition pages that renders them invalid, your filing will be deemed incomplete, your packet will be returned to you, and you will have until 4/4 at 5pm to refile.
Ballot Order
Ballot order is determined by filing order, with an important caveat: everyone who is inside the ADC office to submit their paperwork at the time the window opens (12:00:00pm on Monday, 3/18) will be considered same-time arrivals, and will have their names drawn from a hat, by the Registrar, to determine ballot order.
Therefore, there is no need to line up early to vie for a spot in line.
Candidates filing after that moment will appear on the ballot in the order in which they arrive/file.
Should a candidate file at noon, but be found to have an incomplete filing packet, they must fix and refile. Their place on the ballot will be reflective of the filing time and date in which they submitted a complete and valid packet. Please note that turning in a partial packet will not hold you a place on the ballot.
Questions?
This is a straightforward process, but it is a big deal, and it’s bound to raise questions. Please feel free to contact the office ( [email protected]), Chair Sandy Marks, or Vice Chair Ricardo Alfaro for any information we may have missed or that you’d like to talk through or confirm. The Alexandria Director of Elections and General Registrar Angie Turner is also a fantastic and credible resource, and can be reached (703) 746-4050 or [email protected].