Both the council members and the mayor serve four-year terms; none face term limits. Council members are nominated by their wards via a ward-level primary held in September. The top vote-earners from each party then compete at-large for their ward's seat on the November ballot. In other words, on election day the whole city votes on all the council races up for that year. Council elections are severed: Wards 1, 2, and 4 (as well as the mayor) are up for election in the same year (most recently 2011), while Wards 3, 5, and 6 share another year (most recently 2013).

When is Tucson's city council primary?