Welcome to the Wednesday, July 16, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- A look at political party ballot access requirements and Elon Musk’s America Party
- Missouri governor signs law repealing provisions of 2024 paid sick leave and minimum wage ballot initiative
- A comprehensive look at 116 years of ballot measures in Missouri
A look at political party ballot access requirements and Elon Musk’s America Party
On July 5, Tesla and SpaceX CEO and former Trump administration senior advisor Elon Musk announced he would form a new political party named the America Party. Today, we’re taking a look at some of the different requirements that political parties must meet to gain ballot access in the U.S.
Background
Musk was the largest individual political donor during the 2024 general election cycle, donating more than $280 million, primarily to Republican candidates and President Donald Trump’s (R) campaign. After the election, Trump announced that Musk would help lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as a special government employee. On May 28, Musk announced he was leaving DOGE as the 130 days of employment granted to special government employees neared an end.
Musk and Trump began publicly criticizing each other in June 2025, largely over the then-proposed budget reconciliation bill, titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. On June 3, Musk criticized the bill on X. On June 5, Trump expressed disappointment in Musk and criticized his stance on the bill in televised comments. The same day, Musk announced the formation of the America Party. He’d previously said that the new party might “laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” writing that due to “razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”
Ballot access requirements
The America Party is not yet recognized in any state as a political party able to put candidates on the ballot.
Rules governing ballot access for political parties are set at the state level and vary widely. Once a party achieves ballot-qualified status, it can nominate candidates to the ballot rather than its candidates independently gaining ballot access.
Most states use at least one of the following methods for political party ballot qualification:
- Petition: Party must file a petition with a certain number or percentage of valid signatures
- Voter registration threshold: Party must register a certain number or percentage of voters in the state
- Vote threshold: A candidate affiliated with the party must qualify for the ballot and receive a certain percentage of the vote for the party to be qualified for subsequent elections
Some states use multiple requirements listed above, and some use other methods. Additionally, once a party qualifies for the ballot in a state, it must continue to meet certain requirements to maintain its status.
Most states also have different criteria for major and minor parties. A party’s status often determines how it may nominate candidates to the general election ballot, whether via primary, convention, or other method.
Examples of ballot access rules in states with battleground elections in 2026 include:
- Arizona: Filing a petition with at least 34,127 signatures from at least five counties, at least 10% of which must come from counties of less than 500,000 people
- Georgia: Filing a petition with signatures equal to at least 1% of the number of registered voters in the state in the 2024 general election
- Maine: Enrolling 5,000 voters in the party
- Michigan: Filing a petition with at least 44,620 signatures, including at least 100 signatures from at least half of the state’s congressional districts
- Minnesota: Filing a petition with signatures equal to at least 5% of the number of people who voted in the state in the 2024 general election
- New Hampshire: Filing a petition with signatures equal to at least 3% of the total votes cast at the previous state general election
- North Carolina: Filing a petition with signatures equal to at least 0.25% of the total number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election, including at least 200 voters from each congressional district
- Wisconsin: Filing a petition with the signatures of 10,000 registered voters, including at least 1,000 from each of at least three congressional districts
In at least one state, Musk’s new party’s name may be an obstacle to ballot access. Richard Winger of Ballot Access News observed that New York’s election code prohibits the use of certain words in party names—including “American”—writing, “It is not clear if this law would ban the word ‘America.’”
Regarding national party status, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website, “A national party committee and its state party committees may make special expenditures in connection with the general election campaigns of federal candidates. These coordinated party expenditures do not count against the contribution limits but are subject to a different set of limits. Additionally, any coordinated party expenditures must be made with federally permissible funds only.” The Federal Election Commission (FEC) determines whether a party committee qualifies for national or state party committee status. Click here to learn more about the FEC’s criteria for national and state-level party committees.
According to ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, “the Federal Election Commission … has not been in quorum to [review new parties’ qualifications] since a commissioner resigned in April, leaving the agency with just three commissioners. FEC commissioners can only be appointed by President Trump.”
As of 2025, there are at least 55 distinct ballot-qualified political parties in the U.S. and 238 state-level parties. Some parties are recognized in multiple states. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are recognized in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.. Three other parties are recognized in more than 10 states: the Libertarian Party (38 states), the Green Party (23), and the Constitution Party (12).
To learn more about ballot access requirements for political parties in the U.S., click here.
Missouri governor signs law repealing provisions of 2024 paid sick leave and minimum wage ballot initiative
On July 10, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) signed House Bill 567 (HB 567), using legislative alternation to repeal provisions of a 2024 citizen initiative that established paid sick leave requirements and a previously existing provision that tied future minimum wage increases to inflation.
Legislative alteration is when lawmakers repeal or amend citizen initiatives after voters approve them. At the statewide level, it applies only to initiated state statutes since legislatures cannot change initiated constitutional amendments without voter approval.
Proposition A was a citizen-initiated state statute, which voters approved 57.6%-42.4% on Nov. 5, 2024. Proposition A increased Missouri’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026, starting at $13.75 per hour in 2025. It also required employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
The initiative required businesses with 15 employees or fewer to provide at least five paid sick days per year, while those with more than 15 employees had to offer at least seven paid sick days annually. Employees could use this sick leave for their own illnesses or to care for family members.
HB 567 repealed the state’s schedule of inflation-based minimum wage increases, which had been in effect since 2006, and repealed Proposition A’s sick leave requirements. It did not repeal the minimum wage increase from $13.75 to $15 scheduled for Jan. 1, 2026.
Missouri HB 567 passed 84-62 in the state House, with 84 Republicans voting to pass the bill and 48 Democrats and 14 Republicans voting against it. The Missouri Senate voted 22-11 to pass HB 567, largely along party lines with one Republican joining Democrats in opposition.
After signing HB 567 and another bill related to taxes, Kehoe released a statement saying, “Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work—families, job creators, and small business owners—by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates.”
Richard von Glahn, the organizing director of Missouri Jobs With Justice, which is sponsoring a 2026 constitutional initiative to put the minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements in the state constitution, said the repeal of paid sick leave “forces people to choose between their family’s health and their paycheck.”
This is the second repeal of a 2024 paid sick leave initiative. The first was in June when Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) signed a bill repealing the paid sick leave requirement for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, among other changes.
Missouri is one of 11 states with the initiative power and no restrictions on when or how legislators can amend or repeal voter-approved initiated statutes. Nebraska requires a two-thirds vote to amend or repeal initiated state statutes. Alaska lawmakers can repeal initiated state statutes after two years or amend them at any time with a simple majority vote.
The Missouri Legislature has amended one other initiated state statute since 2010. Proposition B was approved 52%-48% in 2010. It required large-scale dog breeders to meet specific care standards, limited breeders to 50 dogs, and established a misdemeanor crime for puppy mill cruelty violations. State legislators amended it in 2011.
Voters also approved paid sick leave initiatives in Alaska and Nebraska last November. The Nebraska Legislature passed and Gov. Jim Pillen (R) signed a bill in June repealing the paid sick leave requirement for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, among other changes. No changes have been adopted in Alaska.
Between 1912 and 2024, 20 states decided on 41 ballot measures related to minimum wage. Thirty-four were approved and seven were defeated.
Click here to learn more about Proposition A and here to learn more about legislative alteration. To learn more about minimum wage in each state, click here.
A comprehensive look at 116 years of ballot measures in Missouri
Ballotpedia’s Historical Ballot Measure Factbook will document nearly 200 years of direct democracy in the United States. This ongoing research effort will provide an unparalleled resource for researchers, reporters, and the public on how ballot measures have evolved, the issues they have covered, and their role in our civic life.
Today, let’s look at historical ballot measures in Missouri. The measure we mentioned above is one of the 420 measures that make up our comprehensive inventory of Missouri ballot measures. Our Missouri Factbook spans from 1908, when voters approved the state’s citizen initiative process, to 2024. In that time, Michigan voters approved 195 measures and defeated 225— a 46.4%% approval rate.
The average number of measures per decade was 32.
Between 1908 and 2024, the Missouri Legislature put 286 measures on the ballot, while there were 130 citizen initiatives.
There are eight different types of ballot measures in Missouri. (For veto referendums, a ‘no’ vote repeals the targeted law. A high number of ‘no’ votes indicates that most veto referendums successfully overturned legislation.)
Missouri ballot measures addressed 144 unique topics, the most common of which were property taxes (45 measures) and local government finance and taxes (43 measures).
Here is a selection of important and interesting measures from the Missouri Factbook:
- In 1912, voters rejected a constitutional amendment to require foreign-born men to become citizens before being eligible to vote, rather than being allowed to vote after declaring their intent to become citizens. In 1924, voters approved an amendment proposing such a change. In 2024, voters approved Amendment 7, which prohibited non-citizen voting.
- In 1920, voters approved Proposition 15, establishing a process in which voters are asked whether to hold a state constitutional convention every 20 years.
- In 1945, voters ratified the state’s fourth and current constitution.
- In 1976, voters approved Amendment 5, repealing constitutional language that allowed the legislature to require school segregation based on race. Amendment 4 was passed 22 years after Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
- Voters decided on measures regarding right-to-work laws in 1978 and 2018. In 1978, voters rejected Amendment 23, which would have prohibited denying employment based on membership status or payment of charges to a labor organization. In 2017, Missouri enacted a right-to-work law. In 2018, voters overturned the law via a veto referendum.
- Voters decided on issues related to congressional term limits in 1992 and 1996. In 1992, voters approved Amendment 13, which provided for congressional term limits, contingent upon half the states adopting such term limits. In 1996, voters approved Amendment 9, which declared the state’s support for a federal constitutional amendment for congressional term limits and required congressional candidates’ positions on term limits to be printed on the ballot. The ballot labels were struck down as unconstitutional in Cook v. Gralike (2001).
- In 2024, voters approved Amendment 3, which provided for a state constitutional right to abortion. Amendment 3 was one of 11 abortion-related measures in 2024—the most on record for a single year.
Of the 420 measures on the ballot in Missouri, 16 were decided by less than a percentage of the vote.
The measure with the smallest margin was Amendment 3 (1984), which authorized health insurance benefits for the dependents of public employees. Voters approved it 50.02%-49.98%, a margin of 0.04%.
The measure with the widest margin was Amendment 5 (1978), which would have increased the gas tax from $0.07 to $0.10 a gallon. Voters defeated it 87.73%-12.27%, a margin of 75.46%, with 12.27%.
Click here to read our full Historical Ballot Measures Factbook for Missouri, and click here to see a list of all of our completed Factbooks.