In 2017, an independent resident of North Carolina, Michael Crowell, filed a federal lawsuit against the law that said only Democrats and Republicans could ever serve on the State Board of Elections, or a county board of elections. The case has been on hold for over a year, because the state policy keeps changing. A new proposal to include one person on the state board who is not a member of either party was passed by the legislature, but then declared unconstitutional on separation of powers grounds.

On October 15, Crowell asked the court to let the case go forward now. He asserts that even if North Carolina ends up allowing a single non-major party member to serve, that is still not constitutionally sufficient. Here is his brief, which has a useful summary of all the action in state court over the makeup of the State Board.

On October 22, the Virginia Board of Elections filed this brief in the Fourth Circuit in Fitzgerald v Alcorn, 18-1111. The issue is the Virginia law that says incumbent office-holders who are running for re-election may dictate to their party whether to use a primary or a convention in that particular race. The U.S. District Court had invalidated the law. The state is mostly arguing that the case is procedurally flawed.

On October 17, the State Journal-Register, daily newspaper for Springfield, endorsed Steve Dutner, the Libertarian nominee, for Secretary of State. See the editorial here. Thanks to Independent Political Report for this news. If Dutner gets at least 5% of the vote, the Libertarian Party will become ballot-qualified for statewide offices in 2020, and will be entitled to a presidential primary.