You asked (1) for the number of states that prohibit political parties from cross-endorsing candidates and (2) whether the prohibitions are in state law or party rules.

An overwhelming majority of states ban cross-endorsement (also known as “fusion”), a process whereby two or more political parties (typically a major and minor party) nominate the same candidate for the same office during the same election. A cross-endorsed candidate’s name appears on the ballot as many times as he is chosen as a party’s nominee. The candidate’s votes on each party’s ballot are added together to determine whether the total is sufficient to declare him the winner of the public office he seeks.

According to the New Majority Education Fund, 25 states explicitly ban cross-endorsements by prohibiting multiple party nominations in their statutes. Another 15 states “indirectly” ban it by requiring, in law, that candidates be members of the nominating party. Since candidates can only be members of one party at a time, the legal effect of these laws is to ban cross-endorsement. However, five of the 15 states, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and New Hampshire, allow write-in cross-endorsement (i. e. , where one or more multiple party nominations is won by write-in votes). Table 1 shows the direct and indirect ban states. The remaining 10 states, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont, have laws that allow cross-endorsement. Although permitted under Arkansas law, current Democratic State Party rules ban cross- endorsement.

TABLE 1: STATES THAT BAN CROSS-ENDORSEMENT

^{Source: New Majority Education Fund}

The New Majority Education Fund is a project sponsored by the Tides Center, a part of a group of nonprofit organizations interested in social change, innovation, and environmental sustainability. The fund was created by community and labor organizations and grassroots leaders to revive cross-endorsements. A more detailed listing of cross-endorsement statutes, and court and attorney generals’ decisions by state is available at www. nmef. org. We have attached a copy of the state-by-state breakdown on fusion for your information.

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