Article 3. Selection Of Candidates By The Secretary Of State of California Elections Code >> Division 6. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.

The Secretary of State shall place the name of a candidate upon the Republican presidential primary ballot when the Secretary of State has determined that the candidate is generally recognized throughout the United States or California as a candidate for the nomination of the Republican Party for President of the United States. On or before the 120th day preceding a presidential primary election the Secretary of State shall publicly announce and distribute to the news media for publication a list of the candidates he or she intends to place on the ballot at the following presidential primary election. Following this announcement he or she may add candidates to his or her selection, but he or she may not delete any candidate whose name appears on the announced list.

When the Secretary of State decides to place the name of a candidate on the ballot pursuant to Section 6340, he or she shall notify the candidate that his or her name will appear on the ballot of this state in the presidential primary election. The secretary shall also notify the candidate that he or she may withdraw his or her name from the ballot by filing with the Secretary of State an affidavit pursuant to Section 6342 no later than the 68th day before that election.

If a selected candidate or a nonselected candidate files with the Secretary of State, no later than the 68th day before the presidential primary, an affidavit stating without qualification that he or she is not now a candidate for the office of President of the United States at the forthcoming presidential primary election, his or her name shall be omitted from the list of names certified by the Secretary of State to the county elections officials for the ballot and his or her name shall not appear on the presidential primary ballot.

Any unselected candidate desiring to have his or her name placed on the presidential primary ballot shall have nomination papers circulated in his or her behalf. In order to qualify his or her name for placement on the presidential primary ballot, the candidate's nomination papers shall be signed by voters registered as affiliated with the Republican Party equal in number to not less than 1 percent of the number of persons registered as members of the Republican Party, as reflected in the report of registration issued by the Secretary of State on the 135th day preceding the presidential primary election.