It Takes More to Run For President than just be 35, Natural Born Citizen and Resident for 14 years

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Getting on the ballot is hard

“Qualifications for presidential candidates have remained the same since the year Washington accepted the presidency. As directed by the Constitution, a presidential candidate must be a natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for 14 years, and 35 years of age or older.”

Tennessee Ballot Petition Updates

Thursday, August 25, 2016:  We turned in our 365 signatures, 11 electors and our VP paperwork.  I received a call this afternoon that only 260 of the 275 needed, leaving us 15 short.  They are sending me a list of my 105 friends who will not be able to vote this fall.

Update: Tuesday, August 30th, 2016 – We are now just 12 short but running out of time. Here is the email the nice man in charge of Tennessee Elections sent me today:

David,

Rutherford County has verified three more signatures. However, you are still short of the required 275 signatures. Some of those who signed your petition have indicated they would do an address change or register to vote in order for their name to count. We have to go with what was valid at the time it was verified so registering now will help them be eligible to vote in November but will not help for your petition. Ballots will start being printed later this week so if you have any more signatures you think should count please let me know immediately. Once ballots start being printed it will be too late. Thank you for caring about the process. I have enjoyed talking with you throughout your journey.

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark Goins

Coordinator of Elections

Division of Elections

Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett​

​​Update, Thursday, September 1, 2016:  If I had our 11 electors also sign our petition we are still one short, with 274 of the 275 needed to get on the ballot.  Of my 365 friends who signed our petition a lot of them were mistaken when they thought they were registered voters. The good thing to come out of this is that they know now instead of election day and can get their registration fixed.  Another great thing is that I got to see 365 of my friends.  I am truly blessed.  I sent in the paperwork to run as a write-in candidate in Tennessee.  We are already a write-in in 42 other states.

​Update, Thursday, September 8, 2016:  Received letter today from State Election Commission. I am an approved write-in candidate for President. I will get results from the campaign. Voters in 43 states can write-in my name.

We have our 11 electors in Tennessee and our VP but we fell 12 short of petition signatures. We are now running a write-in campaign.  “An independent presidential candidate must choose eleven (11) electors.  For each of the nine congressional districts in Tennessee, one (1) elector will be elected who is a resident of the congressional district. Two (2) additional electors will be elected who may be residents of any part of the state.  TCA §§2-15-101 and 2-15-102.” 

We are on the wall of every voting precinct in West Virginia.

35 years old. Resident for 14 years. Natural Born Citizen. I have those covered.

​I wish this was true.  The 10th amendment seems to have an impact on that by adding another requirement to run,  BEING ALLOWED TO RUN.

​Rules for running as an Independent Candidate:

For write-in candidacy, we need to check out Ballot access for presidential candidates 

“Requirements for write-in candidates

Although a write-in candidate is not entitled to ballot placement, he or she may still be required to file paperwork in order to have his or her votes tallied (or to be eligible to serve should the candidate be elected). In 35 states, a write-in presidential candidate must file some paperwork in advance of an election. In seven states, write-in voting for presidential candidates is not permitted. The remaining states do not require presidential write-in candidates to file special paperwork before the election.”   

We can run in 43 states!  We can not run as a write-in in South Carolina (9), Louisiana (8)​,  Arkansas (6)​, Oklahoma (7),  Nevada (6), South Dakota (3) and Hawaii (4).   43 of the 538 out of play.  

We only need 270 to win.  In  ten states we do not need to do anything to qualify as a write-in candidate: New Hampshire (4), Vermont (3),  Rhode Island (4), Pennsylvania (20), New Jersey (14),Mississippi (6),  Iowa (6) and Oregon (7),  Alabama (9) and  Wyoming (3).  76 without any paper work at all!

I have reached out and contacted the other 33 states, inquiring into the steps needed to qualify as a write-in candidate.  To get on the ballot instead of write-in, we need to get 884,428 signatures nation-wide.  Good news? We only need 275 signatures to get on the ballot in Tennessee!