Why must it be a candidate on the ballot. Do not each and every one of us have standing to determine if our presidential candidates are eligible and have been lawfully elected? It would seem to me self evident that this is the case. Each one of us as sovereign citizens give up by choice some of our power to our elected officials. It is ridiculous on the face of it that we then have no right to question their legitimacy and qualifications.
First off, don't shoot the messenger here. I'm a practicing lawyer, and I am telling you what the law is, not what I think it should be.
Courts (including the U.S. Supreme Court) have held that lawsuits cannot be used to resolve "generalized grienances" that affect everyone equally. (For example, courts repeatedly refused to hear lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Vietnam War.) If something affects "each and every one of us," the thinking goes, it can be resolved through he ballot box, not the courts.
There are, on the other hand, well-established rules in nearly every state for challenging the qualifications of a candidate for public office, but those rules (at least all of the ones I am familiar with, but I will add that election law is not my specialty) require that the challenge be brought by another candidate. It won't have to be the Republican candidate; any minor-party candidate that gets on one state's ballot can bring the challenge in that state.
exactly