Kanye West’s presidential campaign, already at a disadvantage given that the rap star declared his intent to run only last month, has unraveled in the midwest after organizers failed to make several key ballot deadlines in battleground states.
West, who launched his long-shot bid for the White House in early July after an extended Twitter diatribe decrying abortion and demanding an alternative to Republicans and Democrats, is currently working on getting his name on the presidential ballot in all 50 states — a significant hurdle with just under 80 days to go until the November contest.
The rap star will be on the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont, according to The Hill, and he has pending applications to appear as an option for president in Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, and Tennessee. In the midwest, though, West is having difficulty bypassing organized Republican and Democratic operations.
On Friday, Illinois’ Board of Elections ruled that West cannot appear on the ballot in that state after the rapper failed to get the requisite number of verified signatures necessary, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“Of the 3,128 signatures West filed with the elections board on July 20, one review found 1,928 of them were invalid, leaving him 1,300 signatures short of the 2,500 needed to become an independent candidate on the Illinois ballot. Attorneys for West did not contest the findings of the review,” the Tribune noted.
Wisconsin’s Board of Elections also denied West the opportunity to appear on the ballot after a similar battle with existing state parties, per NBC News. West did not get enough signatures in Wisconsin to appear on the ballot, may have missed the deadline to run, and, some operatives claimed, was being used as a spoiler against Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden in a key battleground state.
“West faced multiple challenges to his ballot petition that included questions about the veracity of his signatures as well as the charge he missed the state’s deadline,” NBC reported. “But the decision ends the attempt by West to obtain ballot access in a key battleground state that President Donald Trump won by less than 23,000 votes in 2016.”
The situation was even worse in Ohio, where a judge “determined the signature and information on West’s nominating petition and statement of candidacy did not match the documents actually used for petitions signed by voters,” according to Cincinnati.com.
“A signature is the most basic form of authentication and an important, time-honored, security measure to ensure that a candidate aspires to be on the ballot and that a voter is being asked to sign a legitimate petition,” the Ohio Secretary of State said in a statement. “There is no doubt that the West nominating petition and declaration of candidacy failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.”