Ballot access requirements for political parties in Virginia

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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, Virginia officially recognized two political parties: the Democratic 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. Virginia allows candidates to use political party designations.

    • To learn more about ballot access requirements for political candidates in Virginia, 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: Title 24.2, Chapter 5, of the Election Code of Virginia.

    A political party in Virginia is defined as an organization of citizens that, at either of the two preceding statewide general elections, received at least 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for any statewide office filled in that election.[1]

    Recognition process

    A political party becomes officially recognized when one of its candidates for statewide offices receives at least 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for that office. Before this, however, there are organizational steps a party must take:

    1. A group of petitioners may utilize a selected party name on the ballot. The petitioners must organize a state central committee comprising registered voters from each congressional district in Virginia. The party must adopt a party plan and bylaws. The party must also have a designated chairman and secretary for at least six months prior to filing the petition.[2]
    2. The party name cannot be identical or substantially similar to the name of any qualified, officially recognized political party.[3]
    3. After meeting the above criteria, this non-recognized political party can have its party label appear next to the name of a candidate running for federal or state office.[4]
    4. In order to nominate a statewide candidate and seek official ballot status, a petition must be signed by 10,000 qualified voters. The petition must also be signed by 400 qualified voters from each congressional district. The petition must be signed by petitioners on and after January 1 of the year of the election only.[4]
    5. The petition must be filed with the state board of elections by noon of the 74th day before the election.

    Once a political party is formally recognized by the state, candidates nominated by that party will automatically achieve ballot access for all partisan races for three election cycles.[4][5]

    Political parties

    See also: List of political parties in the United States

    As of May 2024, there were two recognized political parties in Virginia.[6]

    Party Website link By-laws/platform link
    Democratic Party of Virginia Link
    Republican Party of Virginia Link

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    See also

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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Election Code of Virginia, "Section 24.2-101," accessed February 11, 2014
    2. ↑ Election Code of Virginia, "Section 24.2-543," accessed February 11, 2014
    3. ↑ Election Code of Virginia, "Section 24.2-543," accessed February 12, 2014
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ballotpedia, "Email communication with ballot access expert Richard Winger," February 2014
    5. ↑ Election Code of Virginia, "Section 24.2-506," accessed February 16, 2014
    6. ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Political Party Committees," accessed May 15, 2024
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