A serious 3rd party should have no trouble with ballot access. The Libertarians often don't even get .5% of the vote, yet I believe they are on the ballot in all 50 states most cycles. There are too many fringe nutters and vanity candidates to loosen ballot access too much.
The Tea Party, for example, has millions of supporters and could easily have become a real political party. It isn't because the vast majority of people realize it would be a dumb thing to do as it would simple split the right of center vote. Actually, that is an example of just how easy it is to get on the ballot. Many fake Tea Party's sprung up (funded by the left) designed specifically to split their opposition.
Geeze, American's Elect doesn't even know what they stand for other than "moderation" and don't have any candidates lined up at all, yet they are already on the ballot in like half the states and working to be on the ballot in all 50. Ross Perot's party even hung around for awhile.
3rd party's just don't work in our winner take all system that doesn't allow for coalition building.
What exactly is wrong with a blank ballot and everything done by write-in?
President
Senator
Congressman
My sense is that if people don't have a clue who is running to remember their names, then they probably shouldn't be voting in that race in the first place.
Ballot access would then cease to be an issue. The only difficulty would be in counting ballots. I have no problem with the counting taking a few days. What with the court challenges on many races, it already does anyway.