Requirements to Run for Office (In Nevada and most other states)

What are the requirements to run for office in Nevada and most other states?

There aren’t many requirements to run for office in Nevada or anywhere else! According to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, a candidate must be a certain age (varies by office), live in a certain area for certain offices for a certain period of time, and only a few offices have an education requirement!  For some offices, a petition with a certain number of signatures is required.

They must also be “qualified electors.” This means they must be eligible to vote in Nevada. However, none of this information is actually verified by the Secretary of State’s Office or the Registrar of Voters.  

So you can see that people with a variety of backgrounds can and do run for office as long as they pay the filing fee. While elected offices are open to more people this way, the quality of candidates is wide-ranging. I think this is quite obvious today, and some would say the general quality is poor.

State and Local Offices

Judges

Must have a law degree

Be a licensed attorney with a specified number of years of experience

Meet the residency requirement

Be a certain age

Be a “qualified elector”

Justice of the Peace (In Counties of 100,000 or more people)

Must have a law degree

Be a licensed attorney with a specified number of years of experience

Meet the residency requirement

Be a certain age (younger age requirement than “judges”

Be a “qualified elector”

Justice of the Peace (In Counties of less than 100,00 which is all counties except Clark and Washoe)*

Must have at least a high school diploma (not a law degree)

Meet the residency requirement

Be a certain age (younger age requirement than “judges”

Be a “qualified elector”

*Because a Justice of the Peace in the smaller counties is not required to be a licensed attorney in Nevada or even have a law degree, there is effectively NO background check that is required.

Federal Offices

US Congress

There are actually fewer qualifications for US Senate and US House of Representatives! These requirements are limited by the US Constitution. There is only a citizenship requirement, age requirements, and the residency requirement is limited to “. . . at the time of his election, a resident of the state from which he shall be chosen.” Article 5, Section 3 of the US Constitution.

Please note that there is NO education requirement and no signatures are required.

A filing fee must be paid at the time of filing to run for office. So a candidate can live in one state up until Election Day, and then move to the state which they want to represent. So the Constitution IS very limited in its requirements. Click here to read more about the requirements for Congressional office.

US President

The US Constitution lists few requirements to be President:

Minimum age of 35 years of age

Be a natural-born citizen

 Must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years

That’s it! The Constitution allows for no background check, financial inquiry, or disclosure of tax returns (Although according to PolitiFact, all Presidents since 1976 except for Gerald Ford and Donald Trump did release theirs voluntarily).

In summary, it is possible for a US Senator, US Representative, Governor or Mayor to not even have a high school diploma. This is not very likely, but it is legally possible. Click here to read more about the requirements to run for office in Nevada.