Kanye West Makes Presidential Ballot in Virginia Causing Controversy
The Virginia Department of Elections announced on Friday that rapper and producer Kanye West qualified for the United States Presidential Election Ballot in Virginia.
Virginia Election officials confirmed on Friday evening that West is set to appear on the ballot as an independent after verifying that he successfully submitted the required 5,000 petition signatures from voters in the Commonwealth.
West making the ballot in Virginia comes after many reports that Republican operatives have been working to get him on the ballot in other states. After the announcement that he had made the ballot, several sources have accused his campaign of using deceptive tactics while collecting signatures.
One individual, Matthan Wilson, a 53-year-old government teacher from Suffolk, says he was approached under false pretenses while cycling. Wilson, along with several others, was tricked into signing a notarized oath promising to vote for the rapper and his mate Michelle Tidball. During Wilson’s conversation with the operatives he spoke to, West’s name wasn’t mentioned.
Due to the suspicious circumstances surrounding West’s ballot access, a group aligned with the Democratic Party of Virginia is planning to bring a lawsuit in order to block West from the Virginia Presidential Ballot. Wilson is listed as a prospective plaintiff for the legal case.
Wilson is one of at least three of West’s electors who said they were tricked into signing the papers and will not be supporting him, also adding that they would not have signed if they had known the papers were related to West’s campaign.
Though it is not known what impact West’s presence will have on the November election, most pundits agree that the 2020 Presidential Election is one of the most important in our history due to the current political and social climates.
West is known to have been a vocal supporter of incumbent President Donald Trump, and many have expressed concern that his presidential campaign is solely an attempt to harm the Biden Campaign.
West has been removed from the ballot in at least three states including West Virginia due to filing invalid signatures.