It’s time to pick up ANC petitions for the 2020 election

Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats are DC’s most local elected office. ANC commissioners are nonpartisan elected officials who serve two-year terms and represent about 2,000 constituents in a single-member district. And as of June 26, you can officially run for an ANC seat.

As former commissioner Justin Lini wrote for us in 2018, “Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, or ANCs, are neighborhood councils of unpaid, elected representatives who meet monthly to weigh in with the District government about issues that are important to their community. ANCs play a very important role in housing and transportation decisions.

An ANC’s opposition to new housing, retail, a bike lane, bus improvements, etc. can stymie or significantly delay valuable projects. On the other hand, proactive and forward-thinking ANCs offer the government valuable suggestions for ways to improve the neighborhood and rally resident support.”

If you want to make a difference in your community, running for ANC can be a very impactful way to make DC a better place. At the same time, dozens of commission seats go unfilled or candidates win without competition each year

How to run

With the ANC election season officially underway, you can start the process by looking up your ANC and Single Member District (SMD) at ancfinder.org.

General ballot access from the Board of Elections, including ballot access for ANCs, is here. Head over to the Office of the ANC for explicit instructions on how to run.

You must be a registered voter in the District and have lived in your single-member district for 60 days prior to turning in your nomination petition, which is due on Wednesday, August 5 with at least 10 nominating signatures from registered voters in the single-member district.

Before picking up your petition, you will need to file a statement of candidate form and a receipt of ballot access document with BOE, which will then send you a petition via email. Then, you need to collect at least 10 signatures and submit those signed petitions and a declaration of candidacy by August 5.

Once again, OANC has all the details here.

Some tips: You can request a list of registered voters in your SMD from BOE, but you have to request it. Collect at least 15 signatures even though the requirement is 10, just in case someone’s is invalid. And plan to file your petition at least a day early to avoid any day-of mishaps with submitting petitions.

Technical questions about elections should be directed to the Board of Elections at candidate@dcboe.org.

More information, plus a training

We’ve written about what ANCs do here and here. You can hear from some current commissioners about what it’s like to serve on an ANC here.

We will once again be endorsing candidates for ANC based on their stances on housing, transportation, land use, and associated issues. You can see our 2018 endorsements here.

GGWash is hosting a training for people interested in running for ANC on July 16 at 6 pm (It will be recorded). You can register here. More details coming soon! For any questions about GGWash’s recruitment, training, endorsements (or if you just want to chat), email abaca@ggwash.org.