December 11, 2000 |
2000-R-1146 | |
RESTRICTIONS ON RUNNNING FOR TWO FEDERAL OFFICES | ||
By: Mary M. Janicki, Assistant Director | ||
You asked if other states prohibit a candidate from running for the offices of President or Vice President and member of Congress at the same election.
SUMMARY
Six states prohibit dual candidacy that includes federal offices. Four of them (Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, and Oregon) refer simply to public office and include federal office under that general term. Florida specifically includes federal offices in its ban and Utah includes a provision dealing with a person nominated for President or Vice President. Arizona bans candidates running for two state, district, or local offices to be filled at the same election. No candidate in Georgia can run for more than one office including that of member of Congress, but the provision does not cover President or Vice President.
In Texas, a candidate's name could not appear on the ballot more than once until 1959 when the provision was amended to permit a person to run for President or Vice President and any other office requiring a statewide vote. South Dakota repealed a ban on dual candidacy in 1973.
STATE PROHIBITIONS
Table 1 lists the states that do not permit candidates to run for more than one office including a federal office at the same election.
Table 1: States That Ban Dual Candidacy That Includes Federal Offices
State |
Provision and Citation |
CO |
No person eligible to be a candidate for more than one office at one time. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 1-4-501. |
FL |
No person may qualify as a candidate for more than one public office, whether federal, state, district, county, or municipal, if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other. Fla. Stat. Ann. § 99.012. |
IL |
Person must withdraw as a candidate for all but one office if his name has been presented as a candidate for two or more offices that are incompatible so that the same person could not serve in both if elected. Failure to withdraw results in no certification for any office. Ill. Ann. Stat. § 10-7. |
LA |
No person shall become a candidate for more than one office. La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 453. |
OR |
No person shall be a candidate for more than one office to be filled at the same election. In the case of two or more candidate filings, all shall be invalid. Or. Rev. Stat. § 249.013. |
UT |
No person shall be a candidate for more than one office during any election year (see below). Utah Code Ann. § 20A-9-201. |
Utah law allows a person to file a declaration of candidacy for, or be a candidate for, President or Vice President and another office, “if the person resigns the person's candidacy for the other office after the person is officially nominated for President or Vice President of the United States.”
TEXAS
Prior to 1959, no candidate's name could appear on the official ballot in Texas more than once except as a candidate for two or more offices that could be held by the same person under the constitution or as the nominee for a single office by more than one political party (VATS Election Code, art. 6.01). But in 1959, before Lyndon B. Johnson's run for the presidency and nomination to the vice presidency, the law was changed to exempt a candidate who “has been duly nominated for the office of President or Vice-President of the United States and also for an office requiring a state-wide vote for election” (Chapter 161, SB No. 458).
MJ:ts