Evan McMullin’s campaign opted to pay the $500 qualifying fee, instead of gathering 5,000 signatures. | Getty McMullin qualifies for Iowa, Louisiana ballots

Conservative independent candidate Evan McMullin has qualified to appear on the general election ballots in Louisiana and Iowa, according to the Louisiana and Iowa secretary of states' offices.

McMullin’s campaign opted to pay the $500 qualifying fee, instead of gathering 5,000 signatures, due Friday, to get on the Louisiana ballot. Of the four candidates who filed and qualified Friday — McMullin, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Darrell Castle, and Veterans Party candidate Chris Keniston — “no one qualified for president using signatures; everyone qualified paying the amount of money that was required,” said Louisiana secretary of state press secretary Meg Casper.


However, McMullin gathered the 1,500 signatures representing 10 counties needed to get on the Iowa ballot, the Iowa secretary of state’s office confirmed. “They brought in their paperwork 11 minutes before the deadline,” said communications director Kevin Hall. “They turned in a lot more signatures than they needed."

The campaign said it submitted more than 2,500 signatures.

It's welcome news for McMullin, the former House Republican Conference policy director who jumped into the presidential race earlier in the month as a conservative alternative to party nominee Donald Trump. McMullin's narrow path to competitiveness in the presidential race depends on him getting on the ballots in states where filing deadlines haven't passed. He has also made it on the ballots in Utah and Colorado.

Ten states’ independent candidate filing deadlines remain. Up next, on Aug. 30, is Oregon, which requires more than 17,000 signatures to appear on the state’s general election ballot.

Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: The initial version of this story incorrectly stated that the deadline to appear on the ballot in Oregon is August 22; it's August 30.