How Candidates Get on the Presidential Ballot

When President Joe Biden said in late July that he would not seek reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, it shook up this year’s presidential race and renewed interest in how candidates officially secure a spot on the ballot. 

One might expect the process for candidates to qualify for the U.S. presidential ballot to be standardized nationwide. But state laws and party rules shape who appears on the ballot and in what order. State authority over federal ballots derives from the U.S. Constitution, both through the Elections Clause, which empowers states to set the “time, place, and manner” of congressional elections, and Article II, Section 1, which establishes the Electoral College and gives state legislatures broad power over the selection of electors. As a result, the United States has a highly decentralized election system, with state law dictating ballot access rules, including for president, and state and local elections officials responsible for the nuts and bolts of elections processes. Disputes over state laws governing ballot access and other aspects of election administration frequently arise in both state and federal court.

It’s not just candidates from the major parties — Democratic and Republican — who can appear on a presidential ballot. Ballots can also feature candidates for smaller political parties and independent candidates. While the process for major party candidates is fairly straightforward, the state-by-state requirements make the process piecemeal. For independent and third-party candidates, ballot access can be especially expensive and complicated. 

This article describes the types of laws and guidelines that different kinds of candidates must follow to appear on the ballot across the various states.

Major Party Candidates

Most of us are familiar with the process for selecting the nominees for the Republican and Democratic parties: The parties generally select their nominees through their respective state primaries and caucuses. Each primary contest is associated with a certain number of delegates. Depending on party rules, the winner may receive all the state’s delegates, candidates may receive a number of a state’s delegates proportionate to their share of the vote, or a hybrid of those systems.

With Biden’s late exit from the race this year, the process didn’t follow the normal course for the Democrats. In March, Biden secured enough delegates through the primary process to be the presumptive Democratic nominee. But when he announced he was stepping aside, party rules freed the Democratic delegates to choose another candidate. Though the delegates were not required to choose Harris, no other candidate challenged her, and most pledged to support her nomination.

Their nominee would usually become official at the Democratic National Convention — this year’s convention wraps up today in Chicago — but the party officially nominated Harris in a virtual roll call in early August in order to avoid potential conflict with an Ohio rule requiring certification of presidential candidates by August 7. States’ constitutional power to mandate election procedures allows them to set deadlines for certification. State laws setting this deadline vary in timing, due to factors like time needed to print ballots to accommodate early voting and vote-by-mail procedures.

Third-Party, Independent, and Write-In Candidates

The process for third parties and independent candidates is more complicated. Requirements can differ depending on whether a candidate is affiliated with an established third party, with a less prominent third party, or running as an independent.

Established third parties can qualify for future elections by achieving a certain number of votes in the most recent elections. In 2020, for example, the Libertarian party qualified to be on the ballot in 35 states and Washington, D.C. based on the size of its performance in previous elections. (Parties qualifying for the ballot, like the two main parties, can formally name candidates later in the process.)

Most states require less prominent third parties and independent candidates to submit petitions with a certain number of signatures by a specific day, though the procedures can differ.

Some states require a relatively low number of signatures. Michigan, for instance, required 12,000 signatures for an independent candidate to qualify in 2024. For small third parties, it required a number of signatures equal to at least one percent of the number of voters in the most recent gubernatorial election — or roughly 11,000 based on 2022 turn-out. Other states require far more. People seeking to run as independent candidates in Florida, for example, need to gather about 145,000 signatures. While the deadlines for these petitions occur mostly in the summer months, some are as early as March. Potential candidates must also submit the proper paperwork and pay any filing fees.

Some states have different requirements for independent candidates than they do for third-party candidates, encouraging would-be independent candidates to affiliate with a party. Take North Carolina. To be on the ballot as an independent candidate for the 2024 election, a person would have needed to collect about 83,000 signatures, which is 1.5 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, by March. But a political party need only collect about 13,900 signatures, representing .25 percent of the total number of gubernatorial voters, by June.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has qualified to be on the ballot in about 20 states as either an independent or third-party candidate, affiliated with the We the People party in North Carolina, allowing him to sidestep the high signature requirement.

Should a person find the ballot qualification requirement too burdensome or they enter the race too late, they can run as a write-in candidate. Though this process also raises potential issues — many states require write-in candidates to file paperwork before the election.

Litigation Over Ballot Access

State laws governing ballot access have long generated litigation in both state and federal courts — and this year is no exception.

A New York judge last week invalidated Kennedy’s application to appear on that state’s ballot, saying his contention that he lived in New York is a “sham.” A North Carolina judge recently confirmed Kennedy could be on the state ballot for that party, despite challenges from the state Democratic party. (Kennedy, who is also facing questions over signatures submitted in Arizona, is reportedly considering dropping out of the race as soon as this week.)

Litigation sometimes results in new or additional guidelines. The U.S. Supreme Court has directed states to “provide a feasible opportunity for new political organizations and their candidates to appear on the ballot.” In 1983, the Court ruled in Anderson v. Celebrezze that Ohio’s deadline for an individual candidate to submit signatures was too early and placed an unacceptable burden on Ohioans’ voting and First Amendment rights.

This election cycle, Utah moved its deadline for independent candidates to submit their paperwork and signatures from August up to January. Kennedy sued the state, arguing that the deadline was unconstitutionally early — the earliest for independent presidential candidates in the history of the United States, he noted. In response, the state moved the deadline.

Order in Which Candidates Appear

Once parties are on the ballot, states employ various requirements in determining ballot order. Depending on where Americans live, their ballot may begin with the incumbent, candidates from the major parties, the candidate from the party that won the largest vote share in the last election, candidates in alphabetical order, or even a randomized order in an effort of fairness. 

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The control that state laws and the political parties have over the process for presidential candidates to get on the ballot results in highly varied processes — which are especially difficult for third parties and independent candidates to navigate.

Erin Geiger Smith is a writer and editor at the Brennan Center for Justice.  

Suggested Citation: Erin Geiger Smith, How Candidates Get on the Presidential Ballot, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Aug. 22, 2024), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-candidates-get-presidential-ballot.