Elected positions in local government fall into a handful of recognizable categories: executive offices like mayor and county executive; legislative bodies like city councils, county commissions, school boards, and special district boards; and standalone officers such as sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, coroners, clerks, treasurers, assessors, and auditors. What each seat actually controls depends on your state and your local charter, because there is no single federal template for local government. Most of these races are nonpartisan, many draw few challengers, and running for one starts with a declaration of candidacy filed at the county elections office.
Mayors and County Executives
The mayor is usually the top elected executive in a city or town, but the job description swings dramatically depending on the form of government. In a strong-mayor (mayor-council) system, the mayor proposes the annual budget, appoints and fires department heads, directs city staff, and can veto ordinances the council passes. About 40 percent of U.S. cities use this model. A council override typically requires a supermajority, most often two-thirds of all members.
The more common council-manager arrangement, used by an estimated 59 percent of cities, hands day-to-day operations to a hired professional city manager. The mayor’s role there is largely ceremonial: presiding over council meetings, representing the city publicly. The manager serves at the council’s pleasure, so real executive authority sits with the council as a body. A few smaller places still use a commission form where each elected commissioner runs a department, though that structure has become rare.
At the county level, the equivalent seat is the county executive or county mayor. Many counties instead vest executive power in the board of commissioners collectively. County executives oversee departments like public health, social services, and parks, sign contracts, enforce state and federal mandates, and set administrative priorities inside the budget the board approves.
City Councils and County Commissions
Councils and commissions are the legislative side of local government. They draft and vote on ordinances covering zoning, noise, business licensing, and much else. They also hold the purse: reviewing, amending, and approving the annual operating budget and setting local tax rates. In large cities that budget can run into the billions.
Council members are elected by district, at-large across the whole city, or through a hybrid of both. District seats give specific neighborhoods direct representation; at-large seats let every voter weigh in on every race. Four-year terms are the most common length for both mayors and council members, used by roughly half of all municipalities; adding two-year terms accounts for about 80 percent of cities. Only around 15 percent of cities impose term limits.
County commissions work similarly, covering unincorporated areas and sometimes providing services to smaller municipalities inside the county. Commissioners typically serve four-year staggered terms so the whole board doesn’t turn over at once. They handle county roads, jails, courts, public records, and regional planning.
School Boards
School boards are technically independent governing bodies with their own taxing authority, separate from city and county government. Elected members hire the superintendent, set curriculum standards, approve district budgets, and manage school property. Most positions are unpaid or carry only a small stipend, so board members are essentially volunteers with significant authority over local education dollars.
Turnout for school board races is often in the single digits during off-cycle elections, which gives individual voters and small groups of motivated supporters outsized influence. Terms are usually four years, though some districts use two- or three-year cycles.
Sheriffs, Prosecutors, Judges, and Coroners
The county sheriff is one of the oldest and most powerful elected offices at the local level. In all but a handful of states, sheriffs are elected countywide. They run the county jail, provide law enforcement in unincorporated areas, serve civil process such as subpoenas and eviction notices, and provide courthouse security. Unlike a city police chief who answers to the mayor or city manager, the sheriff answers directly to voters.
District attorneys (also called county attorneys or state’s attorneys) are elected in 47 states. Alaska, Connecticut, and New Jersey appoint their chief local prosecutors. The DA decides which criminal cases to bring, what to charge, whether to offer pleas, and which cases to decline. Those discretionary choices drive incarceration rates and set local public safety priorities.
Local judges preside over municipal courts, justice-of-the-peace courts, and sometimes county trial courts. Whether they are elected or appointed varies widely by state, and elected judges may run on partisan or nonpartisan ballots. Many states require judicial candidates to be licensed attorneys, though justice-of-the-peace positions in some states carry no legal training requirement.
Coroners are another elected county office in states that use the coroner system rather than an appointed medical examiner. They investigate sudden, violent, or suspicious deaths. Elected coroners in many jurisdictions are not required to have medical training, though several states have moved toward appointed medical examiners with board certifications.
Clerks, Treasurers, Assessors, and Auditors
County and city clerks maintain public records: birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, property deeds, and court filings. Many clerks also administer elections for their jurisdiction, handling voter registration, ballot preparation, polling logistics, and results certification. When election disputes arise, the clerk’s office is often at the center of them.
Treasurers manage the jurisdiction’s cash flow, receiving tax payments, investing idle public funds, issuing checks for approved expenditures, and tracking the government’s financial position. Tax assessors (sometimes called property appraisers) determine the market value of real estate, which directly controls how much property tax each owner pays. Because assessments hit residents’ wallets, these races can generate more heat than their low profile suggests.
Comptrollers or auditors act as internal watchdogs, reviewing how departments spend and flagging waste, fraud, or unauthorized expenditures. Not every jurisdiction elects these positions; some are appointed. Where they are elected, they provide a financial check independent of the executive branch.
Special District Boards
Special districts are the least visible layer of local government, and there are tens of thousands of them across the country. Each is created to deliver a specific service: water and sewer, fire protection, flood control, libraries, hospitals, airports, parks, mosquito abatement, transit. Most are governed by boards whose members are elected, though some are appointed by city councils or county commissions.
These elections often fly so far under the radar that candidates run unopposed or seats go unfilled. Some districts also hold elections on dates that don’t line up with major state or county elections, which suppresses turnout further. The board members who do get elected quietly control budgets, set user fees, and make infrastructure decisions for everyone inside the district’s boundaries.
Who Can Run
Eligibility is set by state law and local charters, so it varies, but the common requirements are consistent. Candidates typically must be U.S. citizens, registered voters in the district they want to represent, and at least 18 years old, though some positions require 21 or older. Residency requirements usually range from six months to one year of living in the jurisdiction before filing.
Felony convictions create a patchwork. A few states impose no restriction at all on running with a criminal record, and five states permanently bar convicted felons from holding office. Most states restore eligibility after the sentence is completed, after civil rights are formally restored, or after a waiting period that can run from three to fifteen years. Positions like district attorney or judge require a law license, which brings its own character-and-fitness screening from the state bar.
How to Get on the Ballot
The process starts by filing a declaration of candidacy (or a similarly named form) with the local elections office, usually the county clerk or registrar of voters. The form asks for your legal name, address, the office you’re seeking, and, in partisan races, your party affiliation. Over three-quarters of municipal elections are nonpartisan, so most candidates appear on the ballot without a party label. Filing deadlines vary but often fall several months before election day.
Most jurisdictions charge a filing fee. Amounts swing widely, from as little as $15 for low-salary county offices in some states to several thousand dollars for high-profile positions. Fees are often set at a percentage of the office’s annual salary, commonly one to two percent, which keeps them proportional to the seat. In many states, candidates who can’t afford the fee may instead collect a set number of petition signatures from registered voters, typically a small percentage of the district’s electorate.
After filing, the elections office verifies that you meet eligibility rules and that any petition signatures are valid. Once verified, you’re officially qualified for the ballot and voter guides. Providing false information on candidacy filings can lead to disqualification and, in some jurisdictions, criminal charges.
Write-in candidacy is a separate path with sharply different rules by state. In 31 states, write-in candidates must register with election officials before the election for their votes to count. Eight states impose no registration requirement, seven states don’t allow write-in votes at all, and a few require write-in registration only for presidential races. Anyone considering a write-in run should confirm the rules with the local elections office well in advance.
Pay and Time Commitment
Compensation for local elected office ranges from nothing to six figures, and knowing where the seat you’re eyeing falls on that scale matters before you commit. Big-city mayors and county executives in major metros earn salaries competitive with senior private-sector roles. City council members in large cities may earn from around $50,000 to over $100,000 a year. In smaller cities and towns, council members might receive only a few hundred dollars per meeting or a small annual stipend, and many school board and special district members serve entirely unpaid.
Full-time versus part-time matters as much as the salary number. A full-time mayor earning $80,000 fills a demanding job with long hours. A part-time council member earning $12,000 a year is expected to hold another job while attending evening meetings and working through agenda packets. The time load of a nominally part-time seat can be substantial, and pay rarely tracks the actual hours involved.
What Comes with the Seat
Once in office, local officials operate under transparency rules that shape how the job is done. Every state has an open meeting law, sometimes called a sunshine law, requiring local governing bodies to conduct official business in public. Meetings must be announced in advance with a posted agenda, the public must be allowed to attend, and minutes or recordings must be kept. Closed sessions are permitted only for narrow purposes like personnel matters, pending litigation, or real estate negotiations, and the body typically must vote in open session before going into executive session.
Most states also require elected officials to file financial disclosures listing income sources, assets, business interests, and potential conflicts. These filings are public records. Frequency and detail vary: some states demand annual disclosure of every income source and investment; others require only a statement of economic interests when taking office. Violating ethics or conflict-of-interest rules can bring fines, suspension, or removal, and many jurisdictions have a local or state ethics board authorized to investigate complaints and impose sanctions.
Thirty-nine states also allow voters to recall local elected officials before the term ends. A recall begins with a notice of intent, followed by signature collection from registered voters in the jurisdiction. Signature thresholds vary widely by state, from 10 percent of the votes cast in the last election for that office up to 40 percent. If enough valid signatures come in on time, a special election decides whether to remove the official, and in some states voters simultaneously choose a replacement. Successful recalls are far less common than attempted ones, since gathering enough signatures within the window is the hard part.