petitioning 101
Petitioning is how candidates get on the Democratic primary ballot. One of the duties of District Leaders is to help collect signatures for local candidates' nominating petitions for village, town, county, state, and federal elections.
District leaders must also carry petitions for their own reelection every two years.
how it works
In late February or early March, you will receive a packet with:
candidate petition sheets
addresses of registered Democrats in your ED
Each petition sheet typically has space for 15-20 signatures, and DLs are asked to fill out a sheet per candidate they are carrying for (and you are always welcome to do more if you’d like!). The goal is to help candidates receive enough signatures to appear on the ballot (roughly double the required amount to account for invalid signatures).
A valid signer must:
Be registered to vote
Be a registered Democrat
Live in the district of the office
Sign only once for any candidate / office
In late March, there will be a date to turn in your signed nominating petitions (either at an in-person collection site, or to a designated DL team leader).
PRIMARY OPPONENTS
In the case of a contested primary, you can choose to carry petitions for multiple candidates or only one. If the committee endorses one of those candidates, it is still up to the DL to choose which candidate to support and collect signatures for.
If you carry petitions for multiple candidates, you cannot sign a petition
If you carry for one candidate, you may sign a nominating petition for that one candidate (remember to sign another DLs petition sheet and not your own)