Make sure you have the most recent PDF of the partisan nomination petition. This should be available on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website https://azsos.gov/elections/candidates.
Note: As of publication date of this post the website is under “transition” to Secretary of State Fontes. Whatever that means. The PDF of the petition does not seem to be online now. Contact the SOS office at 602-542-4285 to have them send you a petition.
Below is an example of a partisan nomination petition with important elements highlighted.
Best practice: Use a PDF editor to fill in all the boxes clearly with black font. Make sure the Candidate Name is at least similar to your voter registration name and is probably the name that you would have appear on the ballot. For example, my petition had Bob Karp while my voter registration name is Robert W. Karp. Both would be fine and I used Bob Karp on all my signs.
Address must be where you reside. This is critical. Don’t get fancy here and put down a PO Box because you don’t want people to know where you live. If that is the only residence address you have, then you can use a PO Box. If in doubt check with the AZ SOS.
Election to be had date is the date of the August 2024 PRIMARY election. The example above has the date, but make sure you have verified the correct primary date for your race. Spell out the month and put the full year. This makes the date more readable and precise.
How about a photo? Yes please, but don’t use a color one unless that is the best and only one you have. Why waste color ink printing duplicate petitions? (More on printing in a later post)
The PDF file you get from the AZ SOS or another source will also have a back side that must be included with the petition. (Shown below)
