Ballot Access
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
From the Publisher
Chapter 12
Voters use ballots to choose their preferred candidates or to express support or opposition to ballot initiatives and referenda. There are many and diverse rules for how these people or items appear on the ballot in the first place—who can obtain “ballot access.” Once states began printing ballots in the late nineteenth century, they began to develop standards for which candidates, political parties, or ballot measures could appear on the ballot. States may require prospective candidates to circulate petitions and secure a number of signatures from voters to demonstrate support before their names could appear on the ballot. States set deadlines for candidates to circulate those petitions or to file for candidacy. Or, states may limit the candidates who may appear on the general election ballot to those who meet a threshold level of votes in an earlier round of voting. In the middle of the twentieth century, the U.S. Supreme Court became increasingly interested in establishing rules for federal courts to evaluate states’ ballot access rules. The state has an interest in preventing an overcrowded ballot and ensuring only serious candidates appear on it; however, the state’s rules may be unduly restrictive, which may reduce voters’ choices or entrench one or both major political parties in office. The Court has developed a balancing test to determine whether the rules are too onerous or whether the state has adequately justified its interest. These fact-intensive balancing tests have left federal courts with the task of figuring out these context-specific questions.
Recommended Citation
Muller, Derek T., "Ballot Access" (2024). Book Chapters. 90.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/book_chapters/90
Publication Information
in The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law 309 (Eugene D. Mazo ed., 2024).