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Alternative Ballot Access for Minor Parties and Independent Candidates

Nomination by Petition

While the official parties nominate candidates in the primary, or by convention if the party is small, other citizens who want to run independently or under the banner of a minor party must petition the voters to get on the General Election ballot.

The petitioning process assures that a candidate or party has some level of support among the voters before being placed on the ballot.

Basic Rules for Petitions

The essential requirements for petitions for nomination are listed below. For a publication containing detailed information, review Running for Office Manual.

• Petitions must be on forms prescribed by the Secretary of State. To prevent problems, a completed version of the petition heading should be submitted to the Secretary of State for review and approval before any petitions are circulated. All copies of the petition form should be reproduced in identical format.
• The candidates named on the petition for offices other than President and Vice President must file a certificate of announcement and filing fee no later than 30 days before the petitions are due on the day before the Primary Election.
• The petitioners must obtain credentials from the County Clerk of each county authorizing them to solicit signatures, and those credentials must be exhibited to each voter canvassed. In 2002, a new law was adopted that no longer requires petitioners to be residents of West Virginia.
• For groups of citizens petitioning under the name of a minor party, multiple candidates may be listed on the same petition, and a valid signature will be counted for each candidate providing the signing voter resides in the division where that candidate is to be nominated. For example, petitions circulated in one county could contain the names of statewide candidates, the congressional district candidate from that county, and so forth.
• Each page of the petition should be used in only one county, and the county name should be entered on the petition. This allows the completed petitions to be returned to the proper county for checking.
• The completed petitions must contain valid signatures of at least two percent of registered voters who voted for the specific office in the previous election for that office. For example, since 755,887 voters cast ballots for President of the United  States in 2004, the number of valid signatures to get on the ballot for that office in that district would be 15,118.
• The completed petitions must be filed no later than the day before the Primary Election.
• The petitions will be checked and the number of valid signatures counted by the County Clerk of the county where the signatures were obtained.