In over half the states, leading major party presidential candidates can get on primary ballots with no petition at all. Either they are put on automatically because they are mentioned in news media, or because they raised enough money to qualify for primary season matching funds (whether they actually apply or not).
But in Indiana, all candidates need 4,500 signatures. This story quotes Brad King, Co-Director of the Indiana Election Commission, about the work needed to check the signatures on these petitions. King says, “The counties are busily processing the petition tsunami, as I’ve called it. It’s a huge amount of paperwork that they are asked to process in a limited amount of time.”
It is likely that when the deadline passes, ten Republicans and four Democrats will have filed. Jeb Bush has already filed, and his campaign says it submitted 9,000 signatures. If fourteen candidates each submit 9,000 signatures, that will be 126,000 signatures to check. Indiana does not have the statewide initiative process, so Indiana election officials are not accustomed to checking so many petitions. Minor party and independent candidates need 26,700 valid signatures. No statewide independent or minor party candidate has submitted a petition in Indiana since 2000, so election officials haven’t had to check that type of petitions.
