Richard Winger Ballot Access News Richard Winger is the publisher of Ballot Access News, the foremost publication in the United States on issues related to laws and regulations related to ballot access questions. Click here to go to Ballot Access News on the World Wide Web. Each state makes its own laws governing how a candidate gets on the ballot. This is true even for candidates for president.
Rules vary widely.
Typically, a candidate for president running in the Democratic or Republican primary can get on the ballot by paying a filing fee, although a substantial minority of states require the primary candidate to submit a petition signed by some specified number of voters. By contrast, a candidate running as an independent in the general election in November, or a candidate running as the nominee of a new, or previously unrecognized, political party is usually required to obtain thousands of petition signatures in each state to be included on the general election ballot. In other words, if a candidate is acknowledged by television newsmen and major newspaper reporters as someone worth covering, then that candidate has a much easier time getting on the ballot. For example, in 1988 Republican presidential candidates needed 5,000 signatures to get on the Texas primary ballot. Most of the Republican contenders, including Senator Robert Dole, failed to get these signatures.