Before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the stage at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, last month, a team of his campaign staffers and volunteers organized hundreds of attendees through an assembly line of government forms, ID checks, and color-coded wristbands. The bureaucratic workforce contrasted starkly against the classic rock music blaring over the speakers, the crowded bar at the back of the venue, and the jovial spirit circulating among Midwesterners excitedly awaiting Kennedy’s remarks.

But the paperwork was a fundamental ingredient of the rally’s significance. The independent candidate’s campaign planned to use the event to qualify for Iowa’s presidential ballot through a unique process that requires hundreds of registered voters in Iowa to sign up for a convention-like process to formally nominate Kennedy to appear on the state’s ballot.

The Iowa event is part of the Kennedy campaign’s push for ballot access in all 50 states and Washington, DC, an undertaking that has endured hiccups and won incremental victories since the effort began last year, capitalizing on voters’ appetite for an alternative to the presumptive nominees from the major parties, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“People on both sides are waking up and wanting an option,” Dan Twelmeyer, a Kennedy supporter from Des Moines, said. “They don’t want the lesser of two evils. They want hope; he delivers a message of hope.”

After his remarks in Iowa, Kennedy doubled down on his audacious 50-state ballot access goal and said the campaign would achieve full ballot access in the next few months.