Kanye West’s long-shot campaign for president has hit a major snag after two critical battleground states issued rulings this week that deny his name from appearing on the November ballot, according to reports.
West, who is running as an independent on what he calls the Birthday Party ticket, has been declared ineligible for candidacy in Wisconsin and Ohio.
The growing list of disqualifications — including Montana, Illinois and New Jersey — is likely weakening any chance West may have to present a legitimate challenge to either the Republican incumbent Donald Trump or the Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
In Wisconsin, the bipartisan state Elections Commission ruled 5-1 Thursday that West failed to file his paperwork by the August 4 deadline. The commission is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, and a Republican cast the lone vote in favor of putting West on the ballot.
West was denied again in Ohio on Friday when the secretary of state’s office concluded that his nominating petition and statement of candidacy did not match up with petitions that were signed by voters.
“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,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said in a news release. “There is no doubt that the West nominating petition and declaration of candidacy failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.”
Wisconsin is considered a critical swing state, where President Donald Trump unexpectedly won by a narrow margin in the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton.
It’s also the state where West last week alleged Democrats were spying on his campaign.
Opposition party officials had filed a complaint accusing the rap star of submitting fake signatures to become eligible for the ballot, including sworn statements from voters who claimed they were tricked into signing their names.
Montana on Thursday also rejected West’s bid to get on the ballot there.
Prior to this week West had already been removed from the ballot in his home state of Illinois, where election officials said more than half his submitted signatures were invalid.
West has also withdrawn his petition for candidacy in New Jersey.
A former supporter of Trump, West filed his paperwork July 15 with the Federal Election Commission as an independent candidate.
Four days later, he officially announced his bid for the White House in South Carolina, where he delivered a disquieting campaign speech in which he proposed a $1 million payout to mothers, decried abolitionist Harriet Tubman and broke into tears after revealing he once asked his wife Kim Kardashian to consider aborting their first child.
Over the next few weeks, reports surfaced that Republican operatives around the country were helping West qualify for ballots in key states, raising suspicions he was being goaded to run by Trump allies aiming to steal support from Biden.
West’s running mate is Michelle Tidball, a self-proclaimed “biblical life coach.” She’s from Cody, Wyoming, where West purchased a 4,500-acre ranch in September 2019.
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