Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
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This page tracked important dates throughout the 2016 presidential election cycle, including primaries, caucuses, and conventions; filing deadlines; and campaign finance reporting deadlines.
Candidate registration and financial disclosure
Federal candidacy registration
In 2016, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) required those running for the U.S. House, Senate, or presidency to file a Statement of Candidacy form within 15 days of raising the first $5,000 in campaign funding. A Statement of Candidacy form allows a candidate's campaign committee to engage in fundraising and spending of the campaign funds. Within 10 days of the Statement of Candidacy submission, the Statement of Organization form needed to be submitted to the FEC.[1]
Campaign finance disclosures
Presidential candidates, like Congressional candidates, were required to file regular campaign finance disclosure reports, depending on the extent of the committee's fundraising. If the committee raised or anticipated raising or spending a total of $100,000 by the end of a calendar year, the committee needed to file monthly campaign finance reports in the following year. If the committee did not raise, spend, or anticipate raising or spending that much, they only needed to file quarterly reports to the FEC.[2]
Important campaign dates
Democratic National Convention
- See also: Democratic National Convention, 2016
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), announced on February 12, 2015, that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, would host the Convention during the week of July 25, 2016.[3]
According to the National Journal, the initial list of possible host cities for the DNC were Birmingham, Alabama, Brooklyn, New York, Columbus, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Phoenix, Arizona.[4]
Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
The Republican National Committee (RNC) held the 2016 convention on July 18-21, 2016. RNC chairman Reince Priebus stated that "The convention will be held significantly earlier than previous election cycles, allowing access to crucial general election funds earlier than ever before to give our nominee a strong advantage heading into Election Day."[5]
State primary and filing deadline dates
The maps below detail the election dates and candidate filing deadlines for the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries and caucuses in 2016. The states that had earlier deadlines are shaded in darker colors. A table listing the same information can be found below the maps.
Nomination calendar and delegate counts
The tables below provide details about the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating contests in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories in 2016. The overview table lists the following information for all Democratic and Republican nominating contests in 2016: election date, filing deadline, election type (primary or caucus), voter eligibility (open to any voter or closed to party members), and the total number of delegates at stake. Further information can be accessed on the Democratic and Republican tables. For a full summary of a state's allocation process, click on the state's name. All the information below is sorted by election date, with earlier contests appearing at the top of the table. Delegate counts reflect pre-convention allocations; convention roll call vote participation was subject to minor adjustments based on political developments.
Media outlets and websites are free to replicate or use information from the tables above and below, provided they cite Ballotpedia as the source. To view all data in spreadsheet form, click here.
Delegates by state
- See also: Republican delegates by state, 2016
Members of Congress, governors, lieutenant governors, attorneys general, secretaries of state, state legislators, city councilors, school board members, party activists, business owners, current and past candidates for public office, donors, nonprofit executives, and political newcomers, the delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention represented a cross-section of the Republican Party with representatives from the federal, state, and local levels.
To paint a more vivid picture of the delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention, Ballotpedia set out to build profiles for all 2,472 of them. They can be accessed by clicking the links below.
How was this list compiled?
To compile our lists and profiles of the delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention, Ballotpedia primarily relied upon official lists provided by state and territorial Republican parties. In cases where we could not obtain official lists, we used unofficial lists provided by local media outlets. If you think we have made an error in identifying delegates or if you are aware of changes to a certain list or to a specific delegate's status, please send an email to [email protected].
Republican delegates by state
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Washington, D.C., and the territories
- American Samoa
- Northern Marianas Islands
- Guam
- Puerto Rico
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Washington, D.C.
Deadlines for parties to certify their candidates for the general election
If a nominee were to drop out of the race and be replaced by his or her party, what kind of ballot access obstacles might he or she face?
States require political parties to submit names of presidential nominees in order to certify them for the general election ballot. Every state has some sort of official or unofficial deadline for this (see the table below). Some states have earlier deadlines than others because of early voting, voting by mail, and absentee voting. As of February 2016, 34 states offered early voting in some form or another, and several states allowed voting as early as late September.[6] Three states (Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) use all-mail voting systems, thereby eliminating the need for early voting.
August/early September
In 2016, the bulk of the dates for certifying the names of major party presidential candidates were in August and September. Mid-August was the point at which either party could have found a replacement nominee and still have been able to get its candidate's name on the ballot in enough states to be competitive in November without having to navigate the courts and ballot access issues. For example, if a nominee had dropped out in late August, his or her name would already have been certified to appear as the party's candidate for president in about 20 states. If he or she had dropped out in late September, that number would have risen to almost 40 states.
Late September
Replacing a candidate's name in late September could have been challenging. The parties would likely have needed to look to the courts. As Politico noted on August 4, 2016, the courts have shown a willingness to work with the parties on the issue of deadlines: "Courts have tended to discard ballot deadlines in favor of having two parties represented on the ballot.”[7] In 2002, for instance, the New Jersey Supreme Court allowed Democrats to replace their nominee for a U.S. Senate seat 15 days after the certification deadline.[8] In addition to this, election officials in the states have been known to show some leeway on the deadlines. Richard Winger, an expert on ballot access laws, told Ballotpedia by email, “even when major parties have missed deadlines for certifying presidential and vice-presidential nominees, or presidential elector candidates, election officials have always set the deadline aside.”[9]
The other factor to consider, however, is whether or not the opposing party would have filed lawsuits seeking to enforce state laws as they are written in order to prevent a replacement nominee from appearing on the ballot. Such a process would have consumed a considerable amount of time, energy, and resources for both parties and would likely have exacerbated the struggles of the party trying to get its replacement nominee on the ballot.
October/early November
In October, especially later in the month, and in early November (before November 8), the situation would have become significantly more complicated. At this point, nearly all ballot certification deadlines would have passed, many ballots were printed, and voters in some states had already cast their ballots.
This begs the question: What happens if a candidate has dropped out of the race but wins the popular vote in a state? Would the replacement nominee just receive those electoral votes? The answer lies in what that state has to say about its electors in the electoral college. The Constitution does not dictate how electors must cast their votes. But some states do. More than half the states have laws dictating how electors must vote. If the former nominee won in a state that does not have a law on how its electors vote, then, theoretically, he or she could win all of that state's electoral votes. But if the former nominee won in a state that does have a law on how its electors vote, then one would have to look at that law's fine print to see what would happen and if the state's electoral votes could go to the replacement nominee.
Examples of state laws on presidential electors
- Michigan: "Refusal or failure to vote for the candidates for president and vice-president appearing on the Michigan ballot of the political party which nominated the elector constitutes a resignation from the office of elector, his vote shall not be recorded and the remaining electors shall forthwith fill the vacancy." (Michigan State Statute 168.47)
- Florida: "Each such elector shall be a qualified elector of the party he or she represents who has taken an oath that he or she will vote for the candidates of the party that he or she is nominated to represent." (Florida State Statute 103.021)
- Colorado: "Each presidential elector shall vote for the presidential candidate and, by separate ballot, vice-presidential candidate who received the highest number of votes at the preceding general election in this state." (Colorado State Statute 1.4.304)
Deadlines for parties to certify their candidates for the general election
The table below details state deadlines for major political parties to certify the names of their presidential and vice presidential candidates for placement on the general election ballot in 2016.
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term 2016 + presidential + campaign
See also
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Early presidential polling, 2016
- Presidential straw polls, 2016
- Presidential election, 2016
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Quick Answers to Candidate Questions," accessed June 12, 2014
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "FEC Record: Reporting," accessed June 12, 2014
- ↑ Yahoo News, "Democrats settle on Philadelphia as site of 2016 convention," February 12, 2015
- ↑ National Journal, "Handicapping the Democratic Convention Sites for 2016," July 25, 2014
- ↑ Cleveland.com, "Dates set for Republican National Convention in Cleveland; 4-day event will run July 18-21," January 14, 2015
- ↑ Roll Call, "Replacing Trump on Ballots: Murky Payoff and a Legal Thicket," August 9, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Playbook," August 4, 2016
- ↑ LA Times, "What if Trump drops out?" August 4, 2016
- ↑ Email from Richard Winger on August 5, 2016
