Candidates for nomination filed individually or by petition and acceptance. The party then held a nominating convention to limit party candidates for any one office on the primary ballot to two. Run-off elections were thereby eliminated. A popular primary election was held and the finalist from each party appeared on the ballot at the general election. The secretary of state documented the process, including not only names of nominees but of convention delegates.
Returns regularly appear for the board members starting in that year.
Correspondence related to initiatives, nominations, returns, or certificates of election or appointment are filed with those categories. Miscellaneous correspondence, evident in the 1940s, include such things as general inquiries from publishing firms, pollsters, vendors of campaign memorabilia, or school children doing reports. Local elections did not have to be recorded by the secretary of state until 1959 when a law passed stating that after all county, municipal, or school district elections, including bond and special elections, the appropriate clerk was to file, without delay, all returns with the secretary of state. Bond returns are present for municipalities, improvement districts, service areas, and counties. In 1965 filing of bond returns was specifically excluded.