# Jenness v. Fortson **Status: stub — expand.** **403 U.S. 431 (1971).** The Court upheld Georgia's requirement that a candidate not nominated by a qualified party gather signatures equal to **5% of eligible voters**. Decided three years after [[Williams v. Rhodes]] and functioning as its counterweight, the opinion noted that the Georgia procedure had in fact been used — Wallace qualified for president in 1968, and Bo Callaway took a plurality for governor in 1966 after qualifying by petition. The 5% figure became the working ceiling for petition requirements nationally: below it courts generally sustain, above it they generally strike. It is the threshold stage of [[How a Candidate Gets on the Ballot]] and the number every state legislature drafting a ballot-access statute writes toward.