North Carolina law says the State Board of Elections is composed of five members, all of whom must be a registered member of one of the two largest parties. The major party that holds the governorship gets three members, and the other large party gets two members. UPDATE: see this story.

For some time, independent voters and their allies have been trying to win a lawsuit that says it violates the U.S. Constitution that an independent can never be on the board. The first such lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed, and a new lawsuit was filed by Common Cause earlier this year. The State officials who are being sued filed a brief on October 14, arguing that the plaintiffs don’t have standing. Here is the state’s brief. Common Cause v Moore, m.d., 1:22cv-611.

A West Virginia state trial court will hear a case on October 21, on whether to remove an independent State Senate candidate from the November 8 ballot. The challenge says that independent candidate Harry “Lee” Forbes is not eligible because he lives in Summers County. He is running in the Tenth District, which has two state senators. One of these seats is up this year, and the other is not. West Virginia has a unique election law relating to two-member legislative districts. It says both the office-holders must not live in the same county.

Because the incumbent whose term is not up this year already lives in Summers County, the lawsuit says Forbes should not have been put on the ballot, and that he should be removed. It is quite unusual for anyone to expect a court to remove someone from a general election ballot as late as October 21. The ballots would need to be reprinted. See this story.