Delaware

Delaware is the outlier in this batch. Major-party candidates do not petition at all — they pay a filing fee set by their own party committee, capped at 1% of the total salary for the term. Petitioning exists only for unaffiliated candidates, for indigent party candidates seeking a fee waiver, and functionally as a voter-registration drive for new parties, where the threshold is the lowest in the country at one tenth of one percent of statewide registration. There is no citizen initiative, and Delaware is the only state where the legislature can amend the constitution without ever asking voters.

Signature Requirements

Ballot access by fee, not by signature

Delaware's major parties control their own candidates' entry price. Each state, county or city executive committee sets the filing fee for the offices it covers, subject only to a statutory ceiling of 1% of the total salary for the full term, and must notify the State Election Commissioner of those fees by July 1 of a general election year. Candidates file a notice of candidacy with the party committee and with the Commissioner by noon on the second Tuesday in July, and may withdraw with fees intact by 4:30 p.m. on the first Friday after that. Because there is no signature requirement, a Delaware primary campaign involves essentially no petition operation.

The indigency petition alternative

A party candidate who establishes indigency to the Commissioner may submit a nomination petition instead of paying the fee. It must be signed by voters equal to 1% of the registered voters in all of the election districts where the candidate would appear on the ballot, and every signer must be a registered member of that party. A signer may sign only one such petition per office, except where multiple seats are being filled, in which case they may sign for as many candidates as they could vote for. This is a rarely used route, and the deadline is the same notice-of-candidacy deadline.

Unaffiliated candidates

A candidate with no party runs by nominating petition signed by not less than 1% of the total registered voters — statewide for statewide office, or in the relevant district otherwise — measured as of December 31 of the year preceding the general election. For 2026, that base is 801,762 registered voters, making the statewide requirement 8,018. The petition must be circulated and executed between January 1 and July 15 of the election year, and the accompanying declaration is filed by September 1. The candidate must also swear they have not been affiliated with a political party for at least three months before filing.

Circulator rules and notarization

Each unaffiliated candidate petition requires a sworn, notarized statement from the circulator attesting that they witnessed the placing of each signature and that the signers are registered voters. Delaware's published guidance does not impose residency or registration conditions on the circulator itself, but the notarized witnessing requirement is strict and the circulation window is a hard gate: a signature dated before January 1 or after July 15 of the election year does not count, regardless of who collected it.

Party formation as a registration drive

Delaware has the lowest party qualification threshold in the country. A party achieves ballot status when registered voters affiliated with it equal at least one tenth of one percent of the state's total registration as of December 31 of the year preceding a general election — 802 voters for the 2026 cycle. Critically, this is a voter registration threshold, not a petition threshold, so the field work is persuading Delawareans to change their registration rather than collecting signatures. Once qualified, a minor party nominates by county convention on or before August 1 and submits its paperwork within ten business days.

Ballot Measures in Delaware

Delaware has no citizen initiative, no statewide veto referendum, and no constitutional initiative — and it goes further than any other state in this group by not requiring voter ratification of constitutional amendments at all. Under Article XVI, Section 1, an amendment becomes part of the Delaware Constitution once it is agreed to by two-thirds of all members elected to each house in two successive General Assemblies, with publication between them; no popular vote is held. Section 2 allows the General Assembly to put a constitutional convention question to voters by a two-thirds vote, and a convention's product would require voter approval, but that path is rarely used. The practical result is that Delaware voters essentially never see a statewide ballot measure. Petition work in Delaware is therefore almost entirely candidate-side — unaffiliated nominating petitions and the occasional indigency petition — plus new-party registration drives, which are the cheapest in the nation at 802 registrants for the 2026 cycle. Local ballot activity exists mainly as county and municipal bond questions and school district tax and capital referenda, which are placed on the ballot by the governing body rather than by petition.

What Trips Campaigns Up in Delaware

Sources

• Delaware Department of Elections — Getting on the Ballot
• 15 Del. C. Ch. 30, §3002 — Unaffiliated candidates
• Delaware Department of Elections — Political Party Ballot Status

Other State Guides