Kanye West Heartbreak: Rapper Suffers Saddening Blow To Presidential Bid
Kanye West's chances of winning the presidential election are slimming day by day.
On Tuesday, West's attorney filed petitions in Arizona that is said to contain 57,892 signatures. In the state, an independent candidate for president would need about 40,000 verified signatures to qualify for the ballot.
However, his slate of electors reportedly failed to file the statements of interest before August 31, as required by law. Therefore, the signatures they gathered ended up being invalid.
Two days later, judges in Virginia and Arizona adjudicated for West's name to be officially kept off the two states' general election ballots, making the rapper lose more potential voters in the presidential election.
Ruled Out in Arizona
Per Arizona state Judge Scott McCoy, a state law blocked West from appearing on the ballot as an independent candidate. Aside from the invalid signatures, he is a registered republican.
Apart from him, 10 out of his 11 electors are also registered Republicans.
Even if he won a slot, the rapper would still not have a chance since Arizona has been an exclusive presidential battleground between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The "Famous" rapper had been doing expensive efforts to be included on the ballot in Arizona; unfortunately, it failed in the end.
Per TMZ, multiple sources said that he hired a firm, Let the Voters Decide, to have his name printed on the ballot. He even reportedly prepared to cash out up to $500,000 to get the job done.
No Win in Virginia
This news came a few hours after a judge in Richmond, Virginia found out that 11 of the elector oaths submitted by the 43-year-old president wannabe "were obtained by improper, fraudulent and/or misleading means or are otherwise invalid because of notarial violations and misconduct."
With that said, Richmond Circuit Judge Joi Taylor barred state elections officials from printing West's name on ballots.
He also reminded the officials in any other communities where his name had already been printed to inform the voters that he had been disqualified.
West also faced public scrutiny after two Virginia men appealed to remove his name from the state's ballot. The two, who are now being aided by a Democratic powerhouse law firm, disclosed that they had been allegedly duped into signing on as electors.
In response to this, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring called to order an emergency court action to block West from appearing on the state's ballot.
"They said they were collecting names for voters to be placed in a pool to be electors for the state of Virginia," one of the two victims said. "I felt I was misled into signing that document under false pretenses and I do not intend to vote for him."
In addition, Kanye West's name has also been crossed out from the ballot in Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio.
With Thursday's rulings, West has been only qualified to appear on the ballot in 10 states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Tennessee and Vermont.
Such a number is considered too little to have any chance of getting the 270 electoral votes a candidate needs to secure to win the presidency.
