BOISE, ID – Next week, candidates for Idaho statewide and legislative elected offices can officially declare they’re running in the 2026 elections.

This year, all 105 Idaho legislative seats, statewide offices including for the governor and attorney general, and some congressional seats will be up for election.

The candidate filing period starts at 8 a.m. Monday and ends at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27. The Idaho Capital Sun will be covering updates on candidate filings throughout the week.

This year brings two big changes to how candidates file for public office in Idaho:

• Candidates can now file online at VoteIdaho.gov, instead of needing to travel to the Capitol in Boise to file in person, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office says.
• The filing period for legislative, statewide and federal offices is shortened to one week, down from two weeks. The Legislature widely approved the change last year through House Bill 278.

“We are excited to kick off the election season with a streamlined process for candidates across Idaho,” Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane said in a statement. “We look forward to the year ahead and appreciate Idahoans’ effort to seek public service.”

The filing period next week applies for both Idaho’s 2026 primary and general elections, Secretary of State’s Office spokesperson Joe Parris told the Idaho Capital Sun. He said all candidates for legislative, state and federal office must register next week, regardless of their party affiliation.

Idaho’s 2026 primary election is May 19

Idaho’s primary election — when voters can select their party’s nominees for public office — is May 19.

​​In Idaho, Republican primary elections often decide major elections. Idaho voters last elected a Democrat to statewide office in 2002. Since 1992, Republicans have held a supermajority in both chambers of the Idaho Legislature.

The Idaho Secretary of State’s Office has a list of other key 2026 election dates on its website, voteidaho.gov/calendar. Here’s some highlights:

• March 13: The deadline to change political party affiliation or become unaffiliated before the primary election. In Idaho, political parties can close primary elections to only allow voters of certain party affiliations to vote. The Republican Party only allows registered Republican voters to vote in its primary elections.
• April 27: The start of early voting, which is when people can vote in-person before Election Day.
• May 8: The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot, which allows people to vote via mail-in ballots before Election Day.
• May 15: The end of in-person early voting and in-person absentee voting. Parris said some small counties allow voters to fill in and submit absentee ballots at the county office in-person, without mailing the ballots.
• May 19: Primary Election Day. When polls close at 8 p.m, absentee ballots must be received by county clerks in order to be counted.

There are separate deadlines for filing for county and local offices. The filing period for those offices runs March 2 to March 13.

This year’s Idaho general election — when winners are officially decided — is Nov. 3.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.