On September 11, the Idaho Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in Idaho state trial court to remove Kanye West from the ballot. The basis is that he is a registered Republican in his home state of Wyoming. Idaho Democratic Party v Denney, Ada Co., 4th jud. dist.
News stories constantly report that West was removed from the Arizona ballot because he was a registered Republican. This is not true. The Arizona Supreme Court removed him from the Arizona ballot because his presidential elector candidates didn’t fill out campaign finance documents. The confusion comes because the Arizona lower court used the registration as the basis for removing him, but the State Supreme Court did not accept that reason.
In all U.S. history, no one has ever been kept off any ballot for president (primary or general) on the basis of how he or she is registered. John B. Anderson was affiliated with the Republican Party of Illinois all through calendar year 1980 and he was on the ballot as an independent in all 51 jurisdictions. If the theory of the Democratic Party of Idaho is correct, then Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, and Darrell Castle were all wrongly on the Idaho ballot in past years.
In general elections, presidential candidates are not on the ballot in their role as candidates. Instead their names are on the ballot as identifiers for competing slates of electors. The candidates for presidential elector have a right to say whom they are pledged to vote for if they get elected to the electoral college, especially if their presidential candidate meets the constitutional qualifications to be president.