Candidate filing for April 2027 local races opens Nov. 16 in the Tri-Cities

If you want your name on the April 6, 2027, ballot in St. Charles, Geneva or Batavia, you have one week to turn in your paperwork: Monday, Nov. 16, through Monday, Nov. 23.

The three cities have 18 city council seats on the ballot between them, and St. Charles voters will also pick a city clerk. School board, park board and library board races share the same filing week, but those candidates file somewhere else.

Petition circulation opened Aug. 25, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections 2027 calendar, so anyone filing next week should already have signatures in hand.

St. Charles: five wards and the city clerk

Aldermen in all five St. Charles wards are up for four-year terms, according to a city news release. The city clerk's seat is also on the ballot, for an unexpired two-year term.

Nomination packets are at the reception desk of the Municipal Building, 2 E. Main St., from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Deputy City Clerk Marzena Sheets will email a packet by the next business day if you write to msheets@stcharlesil.gov. Completed papers go to the City Clerk's office in the same building by 5 p.m. Nov. 23.

Geneva: one seat in each of five wards

Geneva has one alderperson seat in each of its five wards on the ballot, all four-year terms. Petitions are filed at City Hall, 109 James St., from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays during the filing week, according to the city's candidate guide.

The guide sets a signature range for each ward, from 48 to 98 in the 3rd Ward to 60 to 110 in the 2nd and 4th. Candidates must have lived in the ward for at least a year before Election Day.

Batavia: eight seats, two in Ward 7

Batavia has one seat in each of Wards 1 through 6 and two in Ward 7. One of the Ward 7 seats is an unexpired two-year term; the rest are four-year terms. Papers go to City Clerk Kate Garrett at the Jeffery D. Schielke Government Center, 100 N. Island Ave., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Minimum signatures run from 27 in Ward 4 to 46 in Ward 6, according to the city's guide. The guide says Batavia holds partisan elections but has no established parties right now, so candidates run as independents or as a new party.

School board candidates file with the county

School board candidates file with the Kane County Clerk, not their district. The clerk's elections office at 719 S. Batavia Ave., Building B, in Geneva hands out Board of Education packets and takes filings at that office only.

Petitions need at least 50 signatures, or 10% of the district's voters if that number is lower. They can be mailed, but they must arrive during the filing week. The office is open until 5 p.m. Nov. 23.

Park and library boards take their own filings

Park district and library candidates file with the district they want to serve. In St. Charles:

• The St. Charles Park District has three four-year commissioner seats open. Petitions go to Jenny Santos at Baker Community Center, 101 S. Second St., from 8 a.m. Nov. 16 to 5 p.m. Nov. 23.
• The St. Charles Public Library has four trustee seats open: three six-year terms and one unexpired two-year term. The library's administration office at One S. Sixth Ave. takes filings from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

One receipt every candidate needs

Every candidate also files a Statement of Economic Interests with the county clerk and turns in the receipt with the nomination papers. The state calendar sets 5 p.m. Nov. 23 as the deadline for that receipt.

Names go on the ballot in the order papers arrive. If two or more people file at once in the first hour on Nov. 16 or the last hour on Nov. 23, a lottery sets the order. Objections to a candidate's papers are due five business days after filing closes: Dec. 1 if the filing office is open the day after Thanksgiving, Dec. 2 if it isn't.

All three cities say their staff can't give candidates legal advice. St. Charles points people to the State Board of Elections at 217-782-4141.