With an ally closing its doors, Evan McMullin has no clear path to ballot access

With an ally closing its doors, Evan McMullin has no clear path to ballot access

This story has been updated with a clearer explanation of how Better for America affiliates access state ballots. Better for America, the group that attempted to entice a #NeverTrump candidate into the presidential race by promising him mass ballot access, has folded after falling short. "While polling continues to show that the electorate is dissatisfied with both candidates, and believes the country to be on the wrong track, the opportunity for BFA to influence this election cycle has diminished over the summer months, and BFA will therefore end its candidate recruitment and ballot access efforts," the group explained in a statement. Launched only after Donald Trump began winning primaries, Better for America did not even play in as many states as 2012's star-crossed (but well-funded) Americans Elect. But while Americans Elect never found a candidate, Better for America seemed primed for one: Evan McMullin, the former House Republican policy aide now running to give anti-Trump voters a choice. As The Washington Post's Josh Rogin first reported, McMullin was nudged into the race after Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) passed on a bid. Kinzinger introduced McMullin to Bill Kristol, who introduced him to John Kingston, who had founded Better for America. It wasn't the only connection McMullin made, but it suggested that ballot access might not be as big a hurdle as it seemed.

Better for America, bowing to complicated campaign law, was never able to coordinate ballot access. In its wake, it left a small number of state "Better for America" parties, with far less ballot access than Americans Elect achieved in 2012. In the BFA network's current state, McMullin's hurdles are towering, and vaulting over them will require a mixture of legal luck, third-party goodwill or a sudden surge of support. As of Tuesday afternoon, he had made the ballot in five states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana and Utah. Each success earned McMullin national headlines; in Arkansas, a Better for America affiliate managed to put him on the ballot.