Kanye West has been dealt another blow in his long-shot bid to win the presidency in November.
As WDTV reported, the rapper will not be able to appear on the ballot in West Virginia after his campaign turned in more invalid signatures than valid ones. The West Virginia secretary of state’s office said that the rapper and fashion mogul turned in a total of 13,865 signatures, but was not able to reach the mark of 7,144 valid ones in order to qualify for the state’s ballot. That left a total of 6,383 counting toward the effort, with 7,482 not qualifying.
The report noted that West Virginia will certify ballots next week, leaving the possibility that his campaign may decide to file a petition seeking more time to get the more than 700 signatures needed to qualify. He has not publicly indicated whether he plans to use that option.
The ruling by West Virginia is the latest setback for the rapper, who also failed to qualify in Wisconsin and his home state of Illinois. He faced similar issues in these states, as The Inquisitr reported that more than half of the signatures submitted on his behalf in Illinois were deemed not valid.
Critics have taken aim at West for his idea to run, believing it is a spoiler campaign to help re-elect Donald Trump, whom West has vocally supported in the past. Some have pointed out that by the time he made the surprise announcement of his run on the Fourth of July, it was already too late to serve as a candidate in a number of states, leaving an almost impossible path to an electoral college victory.
Others have noted that Trump won by razor-thin margins in places like Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016, so even a small showing for West supporters could potentially tip the race again. This criticism was sharpened after reports that West had met with top White House adviser Jared Kushner.
This has earned the attention of some top Democrats, with former first lady Michelle Obama making what many believed to be a veiled reference to West during her address at this week’s Democratic National Convention
“This is not the time to withhold our votes in protest, or play games with candidates who have no chance of winning,” she said, via Bloomberg .
As Bloomberg noted, the failure to make the cut in several key battleground states could ease some of the risk to Joe Biden.
