Ballot access requirements for political parties in Texas

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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.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • As of May 2024, Texas officially recognized four political parties: the Democratic, Green, Libertarian, and Republican parties.
  • In some states, a candidate may choose to have a label other than that of an officially recognized party appear alongside his or her name on the ballot. Such labels are called political party designations. Texas does not allow candidates to use political party designations.

    • To learn more about ballot access requirements for political candidates in Texas, see this article.

    DocumentIcon.jpg See state election laws

    Process for a political party to obtain ballot status

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    DocumentIcon.jpg 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:

    1. the parliamentary procedure governing the conduct of party meetings and conventions from the precinct level to the state level
    2. the method of selecting the party's presidential elector candidates
    3. the manner of selecting party officers, convention delegates, convention alternates and convention officials
    4. 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 Internet website.[1]

    Convention requirements for minor parties

    Minor parties nominating via convention are required to hold the following conventions:

    1. precinct conventions
    2. county conventions
    3. district conventions
    4. 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) bi later than 20 days after each corresponding convention.[1]

    To be entitled to place its nominees on the general election ballot, a third 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 1 percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election. For 2014, for example, the required number of precinct participants was at least 49,729. The list must include the residence address and voter registration number of each participant.[2][1]

    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.[3]

    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 5 percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for that office.[4]

    Political parties

    See also: List of political parties in the United States

    As of May 2024, the state of Texas officially recognized four political parties. These are listed in the table below.[5]

    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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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Texas Secretary of State, "Minor Party Candidate Information," accessed December 2, 2013
    2. ↑ Texas Election Code, "Sec. 181.005," accessed December 29, 2013
    3. ↑ Texas Election Code, "Section 181.006," accessed January 2, 2014
    4. ↑ Texas Election Code, "Sec. 181.005," accessed January 2, 2014
    5. ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "Candidate Information," accessed May 23, 2024
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