Elections & terms
ballot access
The legal requirements to get a candidate's name printed on the ballot: filing deadlines, fees, and petition signatures set by each state.
In full
Major-party candidates usually qualify through the primary. Independent and minor-party candidates typically must gather signatures, sometimes tens of thousands, within a window and distributed across districts. Courts have upheld reasonable requirements as a check on ballot clutter while striking down those that are effectively impossible to meet.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.