Famous rapper Kanye West will not officially be listed on the general election ballots in Virginia and Arizona, per judges’ court decisions.
Kanye West has been dubbed with having an “unorthodox presidential bid,” according to CNN. The judges from Virginia and Arizona came to a similar conclusion, which is to remove the rapper’s name from the election ballots.
Arizona judge’s ruling on Kanye West
Maricopa County judge Scott McCoy ruled on Thursday that allowing famous rapper’s name on the ballot could cause the possibility of irreparable injury, as motioned by the plaintiffs of the lawsuit.
KNPX quotes from the lawsuit:
“The ‘drop-dead’ deadline for printing the ballot is imminent… If West is included on the ballot, the harm is done; including an unqualified candidate on the printed ballot will confuse voters and infringes on the core constitutional right to vote for qualified candidates.”
Furthermore, another highlighted point on the case is that West is an alleged registered Republican, and he was supposed to appear as an independent candidate on the ballots, per CNN.
BREAKING Arizona judge keeps Kanye West off state's presidential ballot. #12News #BattlegroundAZ pic.twitter.com/zD1nCJtrFN
— BrahmResnik (@brahmresnik) September 3, 2020
West was supposedly “seeking nomination” for Presidential candidacy under the Arizona nonpartisan nomination process. But KNPX noted that the Hollywood star is “a registered Republican in Wyoming.”
Accordingly, 10 out of his 11 electors are also registered Republicans. His legal team did argue that West’s electors have already changed their respective voter registrations to Independent.
The lawsuit was reportedly filed days before the West’s Friday deadline “to turn in at least 40,000 petition signature,” which should qualify him on the election ballots this November.
Nonetheless, West’s legal team has already filed an expedited appeal with the Arizona Supreme Court.
Virginia judge’s decision
Meanwhile, in Virginia, the lawsuit was ruled against Kanye West after two people claimed, “they were tricked into signing an “Elector Oath.”
Aside from that, it was found out that 11 of his elector oaths “were obtained by improper, fraudulent and/or misleading means or are otherwise invalid because of notarial violations and misconduct.”
Reports have it that Kanye will likely “siphon votes,” which could be detrimental to the close race between President Donald Trump and former VP Joe Biden. This “significant slice” is estimated between two or three percent of the votes.
According to Fox23, West supported President Trump’s re-election until he decided to have his presidential bid. He did, however, recently tweeted a TMZ article about Biden’s Animal Crossing campaign.
— ye (@kanyewest) September 2, 2020
Nevertheless, West still has his name on the ballot for 10 states.
Featured image courtesy of Carl Bjorklund/Shutterstock