In a representative democracy, the term paper candidate is often given to a candidate who stands for a political party in an electoral division where the party in question enjoys only low levels of support. Although the candidate has little chance of winning, a major party will normally make an effort to ensure it has its name on the ballot paper in every constituency.
Paper candidates may be local party members or members from neighbouring areas, or sometimes members from central office. The main purpose of fielding paper candidates is to maintain or improve the profile of a political party. The paper candidates themselves do no campaigning and neither incur nor claim any expenses. Despite this, however, in some unusual circumstances paper candidates have actually won the election.
In Britain paper candidates are commonly fielded in different locations by all the major parties in both Local and National Elections.
In the United Kingdom, major parties often find it difficult to field a full list of candidates for all council seats up for election, especial in the case of councils with "all-up" elections. Parties find it desirable to persuade people to stand as paper candidates so that:
- Supporters have an opportunity to vote for the party,
- The total vote obtained across the council and the nation is maximised,
- All seats are contested so there is no risk that candidates from other parties can be declared elected unopposed.
In Britain, being nominated as a local election candidate simply involves signing some forms, with no deposit required. A paper candidate will often do no campaigning at all and so be able to submit a zero return of election expenses, simplifying the paperwork for the election agent.
Some paper candidates stand in order to help their party but do not wish to be elected to the post in question. In fact, some paper candidates only agree to stand after receiving assurances that there is no "risk" of them getting elected.
However, in the case of an unexpected large swing to or from a particular party, there have been cases of paper candidates getting elected. For instance, in the so-called "poll tax election" of 1990, the Conservative government suffered heavily in the local elections due to the unpopularity of the poll tax. Many of the 163 net losses suffered by the Conservatives were seats that fell to paper candidates from the opposition Labour or Liberal Democrat parties.
In Canada, paper candidates may exist at both the federal and provincial / territorial levels. As in Great Britain, they most commonly exist to allow the main political parties to field candidates in as many constituencies as possible. At the federal level, there is a financial motivation for some parties to field candidates in as many ridings as possible, due to an annual per-vote subsidy of $2.04 (as of 2011) for each party receiving at least 2% of all valid votes in the previous federal election, regardless of the number of seats won.[1]
Alternatively, paper candidates might be used if the party is not seriously contesting the election but must run candidates so it can either get registered or stay registered for some other purpose. An example of this scenario in action is found in Saskatchewan, where the "dormant" Progressive Conservatives continued to run at least 10 candidates in the province's general elections until the relevant law was amended, to keep its registration with Elections Saskatchewan (and to avoid losing control of what is believed to be a substantial amount of money).
An extreme version of a paper candidate, is a "Name on Ballot", often referred to by the acronym "nob". Many NoBs will only put up campaign signs, and some do not even do that. In most cases, the only requirement is that the candidate show up at the returning officer's headquarters for a few moments to take an oath and pay the required nomination deposit. In Alberta candidates don't even need to show up to talk to a returning officer, as long as someone on behalf of the party drops off the requisite paperwork and funds.
In many smaller parties, such as the Island New Democrats, a majority of the party's candidates in any given election are NoBs. The term is often worn as a badge of pride in one's loyalty to the party. Island New Democrat, Dr. Bob Perry, who has been a NoB many times in the past, often calls himself "Dr. NoB" at election time.
Paper candidates, particularly of the name-on-ballot variety, can sometimes provide unwanted attention for the candidate's party, particularly if these candidates suddenly become viable prospects for election. For example, in the 2011 federal election, a sudden increase in opinion-poll support, particularly in Quebec, for the New Democratic Party – which historically has had a minimal presence in that province – led to greater scrutiny of some of that party's lower-profile Quebec candidates — one of whom, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, won even though she had never been in her riding and spoke its dominant language poorly.
The Progressive Conservative Party also had a number of paper candidates who won election in the party's historic landslide victory in the 1984 election.