Rapper, fashion mogul and Presidential hopeful Kanye West is suing Secretary of State Frank LaRose to appear on Ohio’s ballot in November.
After announcing his intention to run for President on Twitter on July 4, West has been actively applying to appear on states’ presidential ballots as a third party candidate. A Christian preacher from Wyoming named Michelle Tidball is his running mate.
Last week, LaRose denied their application, saying they “failed to meet the requirements necessary to appear on the presidential ballot in Ohio for the November 3, 2020 General Election.”
To appear on the ballot in Ohio, independent presidential/vice presidential candidates must file a joint nominating petition and statement of candidacy that has at least “5,000 valid signatures from Ohio voters and a slate of 18 presidential electors.”
According to LaRose’s office, “the information and a signature on the original nominating petition and statement of candidacy submitted to the Secretary’s office do not match that of the nominating petition and statement of candidacy that was used to circulate part-petitions.”
“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,” said LaRose. “There is no doubt that the West nominating petition and declaration of candidacy failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.”
West has hired Cincinnati attorney Curt Hartman of Finney Law Firm to represent him and contest that decision, which the firm says is based on “claimed (and entirely incorrect) hyper-technical petition deficiencies.”
Hartman has filed suit on behalf of West and Tidball in the Ohio Supreme Court saying that despite any visual discrepancies, the signatures that appear on both forms are in fact Kanye West’s and Michelle Tidball’s and, as such, there is no reason for their petition to appear on the ballot to be denied. The suit states as factual that they also had the required amount of valid signatures on their nominating petition. You can view West’s nomination petition and declaration of candidacy forms at ohiosos.gov. (And the lawsuit at supremecourt.ohio.gov.)
CNN notes that Hartman “served as a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention and is the Republican nominee for a county judicial seat.” And many believe West’s campaign is designed to help win re-election for President Trump — of which West was a former supporter, but now apparently is not — and take away from former Vice President Joe Biden‘s voter base.
This isn’t the only legal action being taken against LaRose regarding the validity of signature authentication and its use in voting. Ohio voting rights groups including the League of Women Voters of Ohio, the A. Philip Randolph Institute of Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio have challenged the constitutionality of the state’s current system that requires the signatures on absentee ballots to match those on absentee ballot applications.
The groups have filed a preliminary injunction against LaRose to make sure that voters have “the opportunity, and sufficient time, to correct their mismatched signatures when boards of elections mistakenly reject their ballots and ballot applications on the basis of signature mismatches.”
As per West, he has so far qualified to appear on the ballots in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Vermont, West Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, Utah, Minnesota, Tennessee and Virginia.
Praise God … look at all the ballots we’re on On 🕊
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Vermont
West Virginia
Colorado
Iowa
Utah
Minnesota
Tennessee
Virginia— ye (@kanyewest) August 21, 2020
West’s platform is heavily rooted in “the creation of a culture of life, endorsing environmental stewardship, supporting the arts, buttressing faith-based organizations, restoring school prayer and providing for a strong national defense,” according to Wikipedia.
This article appears in The Burger Issue 2020.