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Ballot access requirements for political parties in Texas
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Note: This article is not intended to serve as a guide to running for public office. Individuals should contact their state election agencies for further information.
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Although there are hundreds of political parties in the United States, only certain parties qualify to have the names of their candidates for office printed on election ballots. In order to qualify for ballot placement, a party must meet certain requirements that vary from state to state. For example, in some states, a party may have to file a petition in order to qualify for ballot placement. In other states, a party must organize around a candidate for a specific office; that candidate must, in turn, win a percentage of the vote in order for the party to be granted ballot status. In still other states, an aspiring political party must register a certain number of voters.
To learn more about ballot access requirements for political candidates in Texas, see this article.
Process for a political party to obtain ballot status
See statutes: Section 181 of the Texas Election Code
A person desiring to form a political party in Texas must form an organization and elect a chair and other necessary officers. The organization's name cannot exceed three words.[1]
A political party is required to meet organizational requirements before holding its nominating conventions. A new political party is required to submit its party rules to the secretary of state by a given date. These rules are required to prescribe the following:
- the parliamentary procedure governing the conduct of party meetings and conventions from the precinct level to the state level
- the method of selecting the party's presidential elector candidates
- the manner of selecting party officers, convention delegates, convention alternates and convention officials
- the manner of adopting party rules and amendments to the rules[1]
A political party making state nominations is required to establish a state executive committee. All party rules, temporary or permanent, must be posted on the state party's website.[1]
Convention requirements for minor parties
Minor parties nominating via convention are required to hold the following conventions:
- precinct conventions
- county conventions
- district conventions
- state conventions
The chair of each convention will certify the nominees to the county election officer (in the case of county or precinct offices) or the secretary of state (in the case of district or statewide offices) no later than 20 days after each corresponding convention.[1]
Ballot access
To be entitled to place its nominees on the general election ballot, a minor party must first file a list of precinct convention participants with the secretary of state by a given date. The number of participants must equal at one percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election.
If the number of precinct convention participants is lower than the number required for the political party to qualify to have the names of its nominees placed on the ballot, the party may qualify by filing a petition containing signatures in a number that—when added to the number of convention participants indicated on the lists—equals at least 1 percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election. This petition must be filed with the secretary of state by the state party chair before the deadline for filing the lists of precinct convention participants.[2]
A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the ballot in each subsequent general election following a general election in which the party had a nominee for a statewide office who received a number of votes equal to at least five percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for that office.[3]
Political parties
As of May 2024, the state of Texas officially recognized four political parties. These are listed in the table below.[4]
| Party | Website link | By-laws/platform link |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party of Texas | Link | Party platform |
| Green Party of Texas | Link | Party by-laws |
| Libertarian Party of Texas | Link | Party platform |
| Republican Party of Texas | Link | Party platform |
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See also
- Ballot access requirements for political candidates in Texas
- Ballot access requirements for presidential candidates in Texas
- List of political parties in the United States
- Democratic Party of Texas
- Republican Party of Texas
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Texas Secretary of State, "How to Establish a Political Party in Texas," accessed July 9, 2025
- ↑ Texas Election Code, "Section 181.006," accessed July 9, 2025
- ↑ Texas Election Code, "Sec. 181.005," accessed July 9, 2025
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "Candidate Information," accessed May 23, 2024
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