# Lubin v. Panish **Status: stub — expand.** **415 U.S. 709 (1974).** An indigent California candidate was refused nomination papers for county supervisor because he could not pay the statutory filing fee and no other route existed. The Court held that absent reasonable alternative means of ballot access, a state may not require a filing fee an indigent candidate cannot pay. With [[Bullock v. Carter]], this completes the rule at stage 3 of [[How a Candidate Gets on the Ballot]]: a fee is constitutional, but not as the sole gate.