How to run for office in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska.

The short version.

Alaska uses a nonpartisan top-four primary: every candidate for an office, regardless of party, appears on one primary ballot in August, and the top four advance to the November general election, which is decided by ranked-choice voting. To get on the ballot for a state, legislative, or federal office you file a declaration of candidacy with the Alaska Division of Elections and either pay a filing fee or submit a nominating petition in its place. Candidates for Fairbanks North Star borough and city offices file locally with the Fairbanks North Star borough clerk.

This page covers how that works for the Fairbanks North Star Borough. It is not legal advice. The Alaska Division of Elections candidate-filing page and your borough clerk are the sources of truth.

How to get on the ballot in Alaska.

For state, statewide, legislative, and federal offices, there is one path onto the ballot, and it starts with a declaration of candidacy filed with the Division of Elections.

Step 1: File your declaration of candidacy.

File a declaration of candidacy with the Division of Elections during the filing window, which closes in early June (the deadline is June 1 at 5:00 p.m.) of the election year. When you file, you either pay the filing fee or, in place of the fee, submit a nominating petition signed by the required number of qualified voters. (The June 1, 2026 state deadline has passed; many borough and city races file on their own fall municipal calendar, so check your clerk.)

Step 2: Run on one nonpartisan primary ballot.

Every candidate (Republican, Democrat, independent, undeclared, or third-party) appears together on a single primary ballot in August. There is no separate party primary to win. The top four vote-getters advance to the November general election.

Step 3: The ranked-choice general.

In November, voters rank the four finalists in order of preference. If no candidate has a majority of first choices, the last-place candidate is dropped and their votes move to each voter's next choice, and so on until someone has a majority.

How the filing calendar works.

Alaska's calendar repeats every cycle even though the exact dates shift year to year:

• The candidate filing deadline is June 1 of the election year (5:00 p.m.).
• The primary election is held in August; the general election is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
• Local (borough and city) elections in Alaska often run on their own municipal calendar (frequently in the fall), separate from the state primary and general.

Because the exact fee and petition-signature counts change each cycle, we don't print them here; check the current requirements on the official Division of Elections candidate page.

Key Alaska dates.

Several borough filing windows are open RIGHT NOW

The Division of Elections' site says state filing closed on June 1, which reads like the year is over. It is not: the Division does not administer borough or city elections at all, and boroughs are also actively moving their election dates, so last year's window is not a safe guide.

• Mon Aug 17 to Fri Aug 28, 2026, 5:00 p.m. OPEN: Matanuska-Susitna Borough candidate filing -- and note Mat-Su has moved its regular election to NOVEMBER 3, 2026, not October. Assembly Districts 1, 2, 4 and 5 and School Board Districts 3 and 6.
• To Tue Aug 25, 2026, 5:00 p.m. OPEN: Ketchikan Gateway Borough filing for the October 6, 2026 election -- declaration plus at least 10 qualified borough voter signatures plus the APOC financial disclosure. Three Assembly and two School Board seats.
• Mon Aug 24 to Fri Sep 4, 2026 OPENS IN DAYS: Aleutians East Borough declaration of candidacy for the October 6, 2026 election -- Mayor, Assembly A and F, School Board C and D. A candidate needs 40 per cent or faces a runoff.
• Tue Sep 29, 2026, 4:30 p.m. OPEN: City and Borough of Juneau WRITE-IN filing for the October 6 election. Regular filing closed July 27, but a write-in needs NO petition signatures -- just a declaration, an APOC disclosure and an acceptance of nomination.
• Thu Oct 29, 2026, 5:00 p.m. STATE offices only: write-in candidates for the November 3 general file a Letter of Intent with any Division of Elections office plus a current APOC disclosure (AS 15.25.105). Votes are not counted without it. It must be RECEIVED by the deadline, not merely sent.
• Wed Jul 29 and Sat Aug 15, 2026 CLOSED: Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kodiak Island Borough filing. Kenai Peninsula Borough has also moved to a November 3 election and its window was not published where we could read it -- call the Borough Clerk.

Alaska has a local election every single year, so 2027 is a normal busy year

Boroughs and cities elect assembly members, school board members and service area supervisors annually. Most vote on the first Tuesday in October; Anchorage runs its own April cycle; Mat-Su and Kenai Peninsula have moved to November. No state or federal office is on a 2027 Alaska ballot.

• January 2027 Municipality of Anchorage candidate filing opens; packets available December 2026. Published by the Municipal Clerk.
• Tue Oct 5, 2027 COMPUTED regular municipal election for the boroughs still on the October cycle; filing windows typically open in late July and close in mid-August.
• Tue Nov 2, 2027 COMPUTED regular election for the boroughs that have moved to November, such as Mat-Su and Kenai Peninsula.
• Thu Jun 1, 2028, 5:00 p.m. COMPUTED state declaration-of-candidacy deadline (AS 15.25.040). June 1 is a fixed statutory date.
• Tue Aug 15, 2028 COMPUTED state primary, the third Tuesday in August (AS 15.25.020).
• Tue Nov 7, 2028 COMPUTED state general election (AS 15.15.020); the state write-in Letter of Intent is due five days before, on October 27.

Read on 2026-08-20 from the Alaska Division of Elections and from individual borough clerks' pages. Alaska has TWO separate election systems and the Division of Elections runs only the state one -- every borough and city clerk runs their own, with their own filing window. Borough dates below are examples checked on that date, not a complete list of all thirty boroughs and census areas; several census areas in the Unorganized Borough have no borough government at all. Always confirm with your borough clerk.

Offices on the ballot.

Alaska voters elect federal officials (one U.S. Senate seat when it is up, and the state's single U.S. House seat), and statewide they elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, who run together as a single ticket. Voters also elect the Alaska Legislature — the State Senate and the State House of Representatives. At the local level, voters in the organized boroughs elect borough assembly members, borough mayors, and school board members, and city voters elect city council members and city mayors. Judges do not run against opponents; instead they face nonpartisan retention votes.

For the official list of seats up in a given cycle, check with the Division of Elections or the Fairbanks North Star clerk below.

Where to file for state and legislative office.

State, statewide, legislative, and federal candidates file with the Alaska Division of Elections. The regional office below serves the Fairbanks North Star Borough for elections purposes.

Alaska has five regional Division of Elections offices, assigned by community. The office shown serves most of this area, but if you're near a regional boundary, confirm which office serves your exact community on the Division of Elections contact page.

Where to file for Fairbanks North Star local office.

Candidates for borough and city offices (assembly, mayor, school board, city council) file with the Fairbanks North Star clerk under the local charter, not the Division of Elections. The clerk is also the source of truth for local dates, districts, and forms.

Clerk contact details verified 2026-07-24. Municipal offices set their own filing rules by charter; confirm the current deadline and forms with the clerk.

After you qualify: building a field operation.

The paperwork ends the day you file. What starts then is the actual campaign: knocking on doors, recruiting volunteers, and identifying the voters who'll show up for you in the primary and in November.

That's what Motion51 is built for. Alaska's statewide voter file is already loaded: no chasing a CSV or paying a vendor. You scope your district, recruit volunteers, cut turf, and start knocking. The app works offline for areas with no cell coverage, and every door is logged with a timestamp.

If qualifying is settled and you're thinking about the field operation, our For Candidates page walks through the next steps.