Kanye West has been removed from the presidential election ballot in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. He had previously withdrawn his campaign petition to appear on New Jersey's ballots.
On August 21, the Wisconsin Elections Commission barred Kanye West from appearing on the presidential ballot after West's campaign team submitted their qualifying paperwork late. A bipartisan election panel, comprised of three Republicans and three Democrats, voted 5-1 against Kanye West during a hearing the day prior.
The commission found that Kanye West's campaign team did not file the required nomination papers on time, which is by 5 PM on August 4. The rapper and producer's attorney argued that his campaign team had until 5:01 PM to file, however, Wisconsin state law states that candidates must file their nomination papers no later than 5 PM.
On August 22, it was announced that Kanye West would be barred from appearing on the presidential election ballot due to mismatched paper. The Ohio secretary of sate's office has stated that both the signature and information presented on Kanye West's petition and statement of candidacy are not the same as those seen on petitions signed by voters. It has been decided that Kanye West has failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.
Despite this, voters can still vote for him as a write-in candidate.
Kanye West has also been barred from appearing on the presidential election ballot in his home state of Illinois. They have barred him on the grounds of the majority of the signatures submitted by Kanye West were invalid or fraudulent. It was reported that he had only turned in 1,200 valid signatures when 2,500 were needed to get on the presidential ballot in the state.
Additionally, Kanye West has been barred from appearing in the ballots in West Virginia. According to Jennifer Gardner, a spokeswoman from the Secretary of State's office, Kanye West had only gathered 6,383 signatures, when the law states that candidates need 7,144 signatures to qualify.
Earlier this month, Kanye West withdrew his petition to appear as a presidential candidate on New Jersey's ballot. This news came after it was revealed that out of the 1,327 signatures Kanye West submitted to be an independent presidential candidate, 600 of them were fraudulent. New Jersey law states that candidates must have the signatures of 800 qualified voters.
Kanye West's name is currently confirmed to appear in the presidential election ballot in five states: Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont. He is still pending verification is five other states: Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Virginia. He had reportedly missed the filing deadline in 25 states and has forfeited 225 Electoral College votes.
A recent poll revealed that only two percent of Black voters supported Kanye West in his bid to become the next President of the United States.
ABOUT KANYE WEST
Kanye West is an American rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He is one of the world's best-selling artists and has sold more than 140 million records worldwide. In his career, West has won a total of 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time. He has also won the Billboard Artist Achievement Award, three Brit Awards, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Awards. Three of his albums were included in Rolling's Stones list "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2012 and was named as one of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time" by the same publication. TIME Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2005 and 2015.
In 2020, West announced that he will be running for president as an independent candidate He formed an independent party called "Birthday Party", with the reason that if they win "it's everybody's birthday". West has advocated for the creation of a culture of life, environmental stewardship, buttressing faith-based organizations, reimplementing school prayer, providing a stronger national defense, and supporting the arts. He has since stated he has no longer supported Donald Trump. Many speculate that West's presidential campaign is a publicity stunt to promote his new music.
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