How to run for office in Conway County, Arkansas.

The short version.

Arkansas puts candidates on the ballot during a single one-week filing window in November of the year before the election. Party candidates pay a filing fee set by their party and run in the March preferential primary; independents file in the same window and submit a petition of qualified electors instead of running in a primary. Candidates for county, township, and municipal offices file with the Conway County Clerk; state, legislative, district, judicial, and federal candidates file with the Arkansas Secretary of State.

This page covers how that works for Conway County. It is not legal advice. Your county clerk and the Arkansas Secretary of State's candidate page are the sources of truth.

Conway County at the ballot box.

How to get on the ballot in Arkansas.

There are three routes onto the ballot, and all of them run through the same one-week filing window in November of the year before the election.

Path 1: run in a party primary.

You pay a filing fee to your party (each party sets its own fees under A.C.A. § 7-7-301; they range from a few hundred dollars for local offices up to five figures for statewide and federal races), sign the party pledge, and then file your political practices pledge, affidavit of eligibility, and notice of candidacy during the filing week. County, township, and municipal candidates file that paperwork with the county clerk; everyone else files with the Secretary of State. You then run in the preferential primary in early March. If nobody clears 50%, the top two meet in the general primary (runoff) four weeks later, and the nominee advances to November. Because Arkansas has no party registration, any voter may choose your party's ballot.

Path 2: run as an independent.

Independents file the same notice of candidacy during the same November window, but instead of a party fee they submit a petition of qualified electors under A.C.A. § 7-7-103. For county, township, and district offices the petition needs signatures from at least 3% of the qualified electors of the area the office serves, capped at 2,000 signatures. For statewide office and U.S. Senate it is 10,000 signatures or 3% of the state's electors, whichever is less. Signatures may only be collected in the 90 days before the petition deadline, and completed petitions are due by noon on May 1 of the election year. Independents skip the primary and go straight to the November general election ballot.

Path 3: run for a nonpartisan judicial office.

Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, circuit judge, district judge, and prosecuting attorney races are nonpartisan. Candidates file with the Secretary of State during the same filing week and pay a filing fee, or qualify by petition in an earlier window (A.C.A. § 7-10-103). These races are decided on the March ballot that runs alongside the primary; if no candidate wins a majority, the top two meet at the November general election.

How the filing calendar works.

Arkansas front-loads its calendar more than almost any other state. The pattern repeats every cycle:

• The candidate filing window is one week long: it opens at noon on the first Monday in November of the year before the election and closes at noon eight days later (A.C.A. § 7-7-203). For the 2026 cycle that was November 3–12, 2025, and that window has closed.
• The preferential primary is held in early March of the election year (March 3, 2026 this cycle), with the general primary runoff four weeks later (March 31, 2026).
• Independent candidates' petitions are due by noon on May 1 of the election year.
• The general election is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (November 3, 2026), with a general runoff for certain offices in early December if needed.

Planning a 2028 race? The filing window for the next cycle opens in November 2027. That is not a typo: in Arkansas you file a full year before the general election, so the smart move is to start organizing now.

Exact dates, fees, and forms change each cycle, so confirm the current calendar with your county clerk or on the official Arkansas Secretary of State candidate page, which posts the election calendar and the Running for Public Office handbook.

Key Arkansas dates.

Nothing is open for the November 3, 2026 ballot, and Arkansas has no write-in fallback

Every route shut months ago, and unlike almost every other state there is no write-in behind them. Act 305 of 2023 abolished write-in candidacy outright: A.C.A. sec. 7-5-205 now says no person shall file as a write-in candidate and no vote for a write-in shall be counted.

• No such thing WRITE-IN: abolished statewide on August 1, 2023 (Act 305; A.C.A. sec. 7-5-205). There is no notice of write-in candidacy, no deadline and no write-in line on the ballot.
• Tue Nov 11, 2025, 12:00 noon Party filing period -- CLOSED. Arkansas files a full year ahead: the window opens at noon on the first Monday in November of the year BEFORE the election and closes at noon eight days later (A.C.A. sec. 7-7-203(c)(1)).
• Fri May 1, 2026, 12:00 noon Independent petitions -- CLOSED (sec. 7-7-103(b)(1)(A)). Note this was only step two: the notice of candidacy had to be filed back in the November 2025 window.
• Wed Aug 5, 2026, 12:00 noon Independent petitions for municipal offices -- CLOSED.

Your real deadline is noon on Tuesday, November 9, 2027

Arkansas county officers now serve FOUR-year terms -- Amendment 95, approved in 2016, moved sheriff, circuit clerk, county clerk, assessor, treasurer, collector, coroner, surveyor and county judge off the old two-year cycle starting in 2018. Only justices of the peace and constables still run every two years. So 2026 is a county year, 2030 is the next one, and the filing window for it opens in November 2029. What you CAN file for in November 2027 is justice of the peace or constable.

• Mon Nov 1, 12:00 noon to Tue Nov 9, 2027, 12:00 noon COMPUTED 2028 FILING WINDOW, and the only one there is. It is also the only window in which an independent can file the notice of candidacy, political practices pledge and affidavit of eligibility (A.C.A. secs. 7-7-203(c)(1), 7-7-103(a)(1)). County candidates file with the COUNTY CLERK.
• Tue Feb 15, 2028 COMPUTED deadline for a new political party to file formation petitions, three weeks before the preferential primary (sec. 7-7-205(a)(6)).
• Tue Mar 7, 2028 COMPUTED preferential primary, nonpartisan general election and annual school election (secs. 7-7-203(b), 7-10-102(b)(1)); the general primary runoff follows four weeks later on April 4.
• Mon May 1, 2028, 12:00 noon COMPUTED independent petition deadline -- step two, and worthless without the November 2027 notice of candidacy behind it (sec. 7-7-103(b)(1)(A)).
• Tue Nov 7, 2028 COMPUTED general election, plus the nonpartisan and school runoffs.

The 2026 dates come from the Arkansas Secretary of State's published 2026 election calendar and the state's official Running for Public Office handbook, read on 2026-08-20. No 2027 or 2028 calendar exists, so those dates are arithmetic from A.C.A. Title 7; the same arithmetic reproduces the published 2026 dates. Confirm with your county clerk.

Offices on the ballot.

Arkansas voters elect federal offices (U.S. House and Senate); statewide constitutional offices (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, and Commissioner of State Lands); the Arkansas General Assembly (State Senate and House); nonpartisan judicial offices and prosecuting attorneys; county offices such as county judge, sheriff, county clerk, circuit clerk, assessor, treasurer, collector, coroner, and surveyor; justices of the peace on the quorum court; township offices such as constable; and city and school seats.

For the official list of Conway County seats up in a given cycle, check with your county clerk below.

Your county clerk.

Arkansas runs local candidate filing through its 75 county clerks. The Conway County Clerk is where county, township, and municipal candidates file, and the source of truth for local dates, districts, fees, and forms.

Contact details verified 2026-07-28 against the Association of Arkansas Counties directory. If a field is wrong or out of date, call the clerk's office or check the county's page there; the clerk's office is the canonical source.

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 March and November. In Arkansas the gap between filing (November) and the primary (early March) is barely four months, so candidates who wait until January to organize are already behind.

That's what Motion51 is built for. The Conway County voter file is already loaded, including which party's primary ballot each voter has taken, so there's 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 bad 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.