If the current CNN debate rules had been in place for a 1968 general election presidential debate, George Wallace would not have qualified. He was not on the ballot in states with at least 270 electoral votes as of June 20, 1968. A search of newspaper stories about Wallace’s petition efforts in 1968 reveals that he would have been on the ballot in states with, at the most, 189 electoral votes.
By June 20, he was on in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas. He may or may not have been on in Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming. This post assumes that he was. The petitions in the unknown states, other than Tennessee and Wyoming, were so easy that newspapers didn’t seem to cover his submissions in those states.
Wallace’s party was on in California, but that party, the American Independent Party, had not yet nominated him, because state law at the time required party state conventions to be held in August, and only the state convention had the authority to choose presidential elector candidates and designate whom they were pledged to. CNN rules in 2024 won’t make any assumptions about nominations by one-state parties. CNN won’t count them until the paperwork is in.