The independent candidate, however, has made the ballot in Iowa and Louisiana. | Getty Independent McMullin fails to make Tennessee ballot The anti-Trump candidate struggles to clear low hurdle in southern state.

Independent candidate Evan McMullin, running as a conservative alternative to Republican nominee Donald Trump, failed to secure even half the signatures needed to get onto Tennessee's ballot.

McMullin, a long-shot presidential contender, has been scrambling to get his name on the ballot in states whose deadlines have not already passed. Last week, McMullin successfully made it onto the Iowa and Louisiana ballots, but he fell short in Tennessee, collecting just 129 of the 275 signatures required.


"Evan McMullin’s campaign did not submit enough signatures to be included on Tennessee’s ballot as an independent presidential candidate," Adam Ghassemi, director of communications for Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, told POLITICO on Monday.

Tennessee's threshold to get onto the ballot is lower than in Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana and Utah, where McMullin's name will appear. In Tennessee, presidential candidates also must list their running mates and the electors who agree to represent them.

With only 77 days to go before Election Day, McMullin hasn't said who he would like as his running mate. In an interview with POLITICO, McMullin said he had a list of people he would like to consider.

"We're now below 10. People may come on and off that list. It's a very, very early stage," McMullin said.