According to an article in the June 5 New York Times, there are likely to be fifteen candidates for the Republican presidential nomination who have the requisite qualifications to be acknowledged by the media and by the Republican National Committee to be bona fide candidates. They are:
1. Jeb Bush
2. Ben Carson
3. Chris Christie
4. Ted Cruz
5. Carly Fiorina
6. Lindsay Graham
7. Mike Huckabee
8. Bobby Jindal
9. John Kasich
10. George Pataki
11. Rand Paul
12. Rick Perry
13. Marco Rubio
14. Rick Santorum
15. Scott Walker
Approximately half of the 2016 presidential primaries will be in March. States with March presidential primaries will print their ballots before any caucuses or primaries have taken place. So even though it is likely that some candidates will drop out after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire and South Carolina presidential primaries, the states with March presidential primaries will have printed their ballots before such withdrawals.
These ten states with March presidential primaries put all candidates on the ballot who are discussed in the major news media, or else they include all candidates recognized by state party leaders: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas. It seems probable that those states will have approximately 15 candidates on their Republican presidential primary ballots. Yet no state legislator in any state this year has introduced any bill to make presidential primary ballot access more difficult. It seems that state officials do not really believe that as many as 15 candidates on a ballot for one office really “confuses” voters.