On September 19, Darrell Castle, Constitution Party presidential nominee, and Naomi Spencer Daly, Socialist Equality Party nominee for state legislture, sued the West Virginia Secretary of State for removing them from the ballot. Daly v Tennant, s.d., 3:16cv-8981. The case is assigned to Judge Robert Chambers, a Clinton appointee.

On Friday, September 16, at 6:30 p.m., an agent of the West Virginia Secretary of State had phoned or e-mailed 17 petition candidates (mostly independent candidates, but including three Constitution Party nominees and one Socialist Equality nominee) and said even though they had already been certified for the ballot, they were being removed, because they hadn’t filed a declaration of candidacy in January. The lawsuit argues that (a) that early deadline is unconstitutional for candidates seeking a spot on the November ballot; (b) it violates due process to remove candidates from the ballot so close to the election, after having put them on.