‘Petition for Council–signatures’
courtesy of ‘Rochelle, just rochelle’

That’s right, it’s election season again. The April 3rd, 2012 primary is now officially underway (though we’ve had candidates in and out of the race already) with ballot petitions being available to suitors this morning down at the DC Board of Elections and Ethics at Judiciary Square.  Ballot petitions are required by all three (yes, three) parties in the District to be part of the primary ballot, though signature requirements are vastly different between the organizations.

The Democratic Party requires 2,000 party member signatures for the At-Large race, and 250 party member signatures for the Ward seats.  Ron Moten may be crazy like a fox, though, for jumping ship to be a “Civil Rights” Republican, as he’ll  likely be the only candidate in the Ward 7 race to do so, and he needs just 14 signatures of Republicans in Ward 7 to get on the ballot. DCist’s Martin Austermuhle is camping out at DCBOEE this morning for the pickup process, so follow his twitter for a blow-by-blow.

As of 9:15 this morning, Jacque Patterson has picked up petitions to run against Marion Barry in Ward 8, and Councilmember Muriel Bowser has picked up petitions to run for re-election in Ward 4. It’s expected that three of the four ward council members will be facing serious challenges, with Muriel Bowser facing 7 opponents, Yvette Alexander facing at least three party challengers plus Ron Moten, and Marion Barry will have at least two.  Jack Evans is so far unopposed, with his only challenger bowing out ahead of the petition deadline, suggesting harassment from the Evans camp.