Nearly every sport has its opening day, and the equivalent for political candidates is here in Washington: the first day of Filing Week.

How to make it official? Here’s the deal:

If you’re a candidate running for a legislative seat in a single-county district, a single-county judicial district or other office wholly within one county, you gotta file with your county elections office .  Each county’s hours may vary.

If you are running for a federal or statewide office, a legislative seat in a district that is in more than one county, or a multi-county judicial district, file with the Office of Secretary of State. You can file in person during normal business hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) through Friday in our office’s conference room, located on the second floor of the Legislative Building in Olympia. The in-person filing deadline is 5 p.m. this Friday.

Candidates can also file for office by using the Internet or submitting the declaration of candidacy via mail.

As of early afternoon today, more than 60 candidates have filed so far with our office.

If you want to see who has filed within a certain county, go here .

Online filing is becoming more popular with candidates. In 2008, 54 percent of all of the filings done with the Secretary of State were online, and our filing team is predicting that 75 percent of all of the filings it receives this week will be done via the Internet. Online filings will be accepted until 4 p.m. this Friday. The secure filings may be submitted at any hour of the day or night this way.

The mid-term election is shaping up to be a barnburner, including the U.S. Senate, all nine U.S. House seats, most of the Legislature, judicial races and lots of local races.