Have you thought about running for Mayor of Rapid City? Election packets are available Monday

February 24, 2023

Mackenzie Dahlberg,

RAPID CITY, S.D. – The time has just about arrived for candidates for Rapid City Mayor and the common council to pick up their packets, which they’ll be able to get on Monday at the City’s Finance Office.

They contain campaign information as well as the petition forms they need to get signed. Petitions can’t be circulated until Wednesday, March 1. Any signature collected in February will not be validated.

The petition deadline is March 28 for the June 6 election.

Photos of the Candidate Election Packet

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Valid Signatures

Must be a registered voter
Must be signed between March 1 and 28
For city council, the signatures must be in the ward in which you are running
For mayor, signatures can be city-wide

Two recommendations

The finance staff will go through the petitions once they’re turned in and if there are 50 valid signatures, the candidate is then added to the ballot.

“They have until March 28th to withdraw their name,” Darrell Shoemaker, communications coordinator of the City of Rapid City, said. “Some candidates in the past have made the decision to run and then they think twice about it and then they’ll pull back that decision.”

One recommendation from Shoemaker is to get more than 50 signatures in case someone is not registered to vote in that ward or at all.

“So it’s good to get more than 50 signatures to have a cushion there before submitting the packet,” Shoemaker said.

The second recommendation is to turn in the packet before the deadline so that if the Finance Office sees any issues with it or has to toss the petition for any reason, they could reach the candidate. That gives the candidate some extra time to recirculate the petition before the deadline.

Packet benefits

“Candidates have a number of questions. Some have run for office before, but for others, this may be their first time. So they kind of need a quick course of an A to Z on running for office,” Shoemaker said. “It’s a pretty detailed packet, but it pretty much will answer most of the questions that a prospective candidate would have. Everything from how to circulate a petition, the deadlines for reports, the kind of reports that need to be filed with the state or with the city. So that’s a one-stop shop. The finance office is still in position so that if there’s any question, you can simply reach out to our finance office to get a question clarified as they go through the packet.”