# Williams v. Rhodes **Status: stub — expand.** **393 U.S. 23 (1968).** The Court voided Ohio's ballot-access scheme, which in combination required a new party to gather signatures equal to roughly 15% of the last gubernatorial vote and file them in February of the election year. George Wallace's American Independent Party was ordered onto the ballot. The holding that carried forward is that a state may not pursue its interest in an eventual majority winner by shielding the two established parties from competition. The first stage of [[How a Candidate Gets on the Ballot]] rests on this case: it established that ballot-access rules are subject to First and Fourteenth Amendment review at all. The deferential half of the doctrine arrived later, with [[Jenness v. Fortson]] and [[Burdick v. Takushi]].