# is there a deadline by which paperwork must be filed to run for President?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 27, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439 "2020-03-27T18:14:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Win\_Place\_Show](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Win_Place_Show)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/1 "2020-03-27T18:14:05Z")
Wasn’t sure if this is more _Politics & Elections_, but I’m sincerely looking for a factual answer, and not a debate pro/con any names that might get brought up.
So suppose in this hypothetical that a bored gazillionaire decides one morning that he/she wants to run for President.
Shit, I don’t know - Mark Cuban. Suppose they cancel the NBA season, and Mark Cuban decides he wants to run for President for shits and giggles.
Has he already missed a “deadline” to file the paperwork/(an application?) to run? If not, when is that deadline? the night before the Election?
Is there even “paperwork” in the way I’m describing it?
Or do you just come down an escalator, lean into a microphone and say you’re running for President and that’s it?
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/2 "2020-03-27T18:16:43Z")
As is often stated, the US does not hold a national election for President. Rather, it holds simultaneous state elections.
So, the answer to your question is “Each state has qualifications to appear on its ballot.” The more specific answer depends on the state.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/3 "2020-03-27T18:27:33Z")
We really need to bring back high school civics classes.
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### Author:  [@Win\_Place\_Show](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Win_Place_Show)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/4 "2020-03-27T18:43:43Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> We really need to bring back high school civics classes.
Maybe so. I’m 30 years removed from high school, so not sure it would help.
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> As is often stated, the US does not hold a national election for President. Rather, it holds simultaneous state elections.
>
> So, the answer to your question is “Each state has qualifications to appear on its ballot.” The more specific answer depends on the state.
Makes sense, thanks. I had a feeling that someone on this board could actually answer the question as asked.
Consider this one “asked and answered”.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/5 "2020-03-27T18:43:56Z")
To run for president at the most basic level, you can literally just say “I am running for president” and, if anyone cares, they can show up to your appearances and interview you about what you’re going to do. If you want for people to be able to actually vote for you, the bar is a lot higher.
To get on the ballot from a political party, you have to go through their process - generally that means primary elections, and the deadline for those is well before the main presidential elections (and have all already passed).
To get on the ballot as an independent candidate, you have to meet some criteria in each state - these range from fairly easy to extremely expensive and/or difficult to do and usually entail a filing fee and/or getting a certain number of signatures. The earliest deadline to register as an independent candidate is 5/26/2020 (New York, 45,000 signatures), so you’ve still got time to get on the ballot in all states if you hurry. It will be especially difficult this year, since getting signatures on petitions is usually done at public events and those are mostly shut down for the plague.
If you hope to win as a write-in candidate, 10 states (plus DC) accept general write-in votes, 32 require you to register as a write-in candidate to be counted, and 8 don’t accept write-in votes. I don’t see an easy list for these, but the one state I did look up (NC) requires 500 signatures and filing paperwork at least 90 days before the election. Some have other limits, like in NC if you ran in a primary election and lost then any votes for you as a write-in candidate are not valid.
The link below gives the specifics:
> **[Deadline to run for president, 2020](https://ballotpedia.org/Deadline_to_run_for_president)**
>
> Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics
And these some general info:
> **[Ballot access](https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access)**
>
> Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics
> **[State and federal candidate filing deadlines for 2020](https://ballotpedia.org/State_and_federal_candidate_filing_deadlines_for_2020)**
>
> Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/6 "2020-03-27T18:56:30Z")
Slight correction from looking at the list again: Two states are earlier than NY. The deadline to register as an independent candidate in NC has already passed (3/3/2020) and Texas’s is actually 5/11/2020.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/7 "2020-03-27T19:24:26Z")
> [@Win\_Place\_Show](#):
>
> Maybe so. I’m 30 years removed from high school, so not sure it would help.
I consider you a lost cause…😛
I’m thinking about the future.
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### Author:  [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/8 "2020-03-27T21:51:44Z")
Remember that officially the presidential candidates are selected by the individual state electoral college members, who will vote on December 14, 2020. Although most electors are strong party loyalists, and many states have (I believe unenforceable) laws against them voting for someone other than the state’s top vote getter, in theory as late as December 13th you could make a rousing speech that wins a majority over. Also, if no one person receives a majority of votes, if you are among the top three electoral vote choices then you get a second chance to be selected by the House of Representatives. Please note that the chances of either of these things happening are very close to zero, but not impossible.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/9 "2020-03-28T01:57:42Z")
Well, there are 538 electors. As the op suggest a gazillionaire, he could bribe them all. Not that expensive. A million dollars each is only about half a billion.
And you don’t need ALL of them; just 270 is enough to win. So $4 million each is barely over a billion dollars. Jeff Bezos could offer them each $400 million!
While these people are party loyalists, millions in cash can be very persuasive.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/10 "2020-03-28T06:08:54Z")
So the only chance for someone to realistically run for president in say, two months, would be to hope tor a brokered Democratic convention, then try to convince everyone to vote for you?
The scenario would be this: Two months from now the COVID-19 threat is over, and Andrew Cuomo in NY emerges as a hero, with sky-high popularity. In the meantime, Joe Biden was last seen playing with a cat. The party bigwigs go to Biden and say, “Joe, time for you to rest. You’ve been running for office your whole life. You don’t need this. And that cat isn’t going to play with itself forever. How about you do us a solid and back out after the first ballot, and release your delegates?”
So Cuomo announces his candidacy, and all of Biden’s delegates go to him, along with all the Super Delegates. Cuomo is the nominee. Bernie Bros spit nails.
Is that a possible scenario?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/11 "2020-03-28T07:04:56Z")
Sure. Brokered conventions were common in the past. It’s extremely unlikely to happen this time around, though, unless Biden dies or falls seriously ill.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/12 "2020-03-28T12:56:53Z")
John Anderson in 1980 ran as an independent. His campaign didn’t do that well, but from what I recall of news at the time, his legal team was instrumental in removing the “good old boy” rules that made it very difficult for third-party candidates to file in most states. Apparently that was one of the main impediments, not being able to get on the ballot in a state. Since then we’ve seen a plethora of third-party candidates but none has really made an impact other than in 1992.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/13 "2020-03-28T13:01:57Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> Sure. Brokered conventions were common in the past. It’s extremely unlikely to happen this time around, though, unless Biden dies or falls seriously ill.
We are in the midst of a pandemic which falls hardest on old men with lots of social contact. A brokered convention seems a lot more likely today than it did a couple of weeks ago.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/14 "2020-03-28T15:02:16Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> We really need to bring back high school civics classes.
**Moderator Note**
Let’s keep the personal jabs out of this forum. If you know the answer yourself just give it, rather than posting useless snark.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deadline-by-which-paperwork-must-be-filed-to-run-for-president/850439/15 "2020-03-28T15:04:43Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> I consider you a lost cause…😛
>
> I’m thinking about the future.
Ditto.