Kanye West Off The Ballot In Illinois After Half The Signatures He Submitted Were Ruled Invalid

Kanye West’s long-shot presidential bid may have gotten a bit longer. TMZ reported on Friday that the rapper’s bid to get on the presidential ballot in Illinois was apparently rejected after election officials ruled that half of the signatures he submitted were invalid. The report noted that several people contested his bid to get on the state’s ballot for the November presidential election, which led to a review by the board of elections. When they looked at all 3,128 signatures, the officials found that 1,928 were not valid.

That left West far below the 2,500 needed to be an official candidate in the state. While it was not immediately clear why the application was tossed, the report noted that he will not be eligible to receive the critical 20 electoral votes there.

“It could be any number of issues — fake names, fake addresses, unregistered voters in Illinois — or even simply an illegible signature,” TMZ noted. “Bottom line is Illinois will be officially removing him on August 21, or he still has the option to gracefully announce he’s withdrawing.”

The report speculated that this could be especially painful for West given that he is from Chicago, and what small support he may be able to muster nationally could have been strongest there.

He has succeeded in becoming an official candidate in some states, including Colorado. But the progress has come with controversy, especially after reports that he has been aided by some GOP operatives.

As The Inquisitr reported, West has faced challenges in other states as well, including Wisconsin where challenges were filed to thwart his attempt to get onto the ballot. Per WMTV, the state’s election commission received two legal challenges claiming that he had not filed the proper paperwork.

By waiting until July 4 to announce his intention to enter the race, West had already missed the deadline to file in a number of states, leaving him an almost impossible path to victory. Though West has claimed that he is in the race to win it, many critics have seen his campaign as an attempt to siphon some Black voters away from presumptive Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden and help President Donald Trump win re-election. West has been one of the most high-profile supporters of Trump, even meeting with the president at the White House.

Per The Inquisitr, West did not deny that he was running a spoiler campaign, acknowledging that he had a slim chance of winning due to his being ineligible for hundreds of electoral votes.