Kanye West has sued Ohio’s election chief in order to be placed on the state’s ballot for the November election. The filing comes after the election chief, Frank LaRose, rejected West’s paperwork and 15,000 petition signatures in order to be included on the state ballot, LaRose citing the signature-gathering documents had mismatched information. West’s suit alleges that LaRose has a duty to include the rapper on the state ballot, so long his petition has not had a protest filed against it with a violation against Ohio’s state law.
Ohio is only the most recent state to have rejected West’s petitions to be placed on the presidential ballot for the upcoming November election. Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina, California and 37 other states have also refused to place West on their election ballots. As of now, the rapper is only able to appear on the ballot for five states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont. His status for six states, including Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee is still pending.
Due to only being included in so few state election ballots, West will be unable to achieve enough votes within the electoral college to be considered for the presidency. Unless the rapper were to find himself with an unprecedented number of write-ins from throughout the country come election day, West would not be able to be elected president. In July, West polled at only 2 percent.
West has not denied that his campaign could be an attempt to pull votes away from Democratic candidate Joe Biden. West has previously claimed to be in support of the current president, Donald Trump, meeting with Trump numerous times and declaring his support for the president in 2018. West has since said he is no longer a supporter of Trump.
The rapper first revealed hopes to run for president in 2015, stating several years ago that he planned to run in 2020. In 2018, West had said he would move his campaign until the 2024 election, the rapper appearing to have stuck to that plan until his campaign announcement on July 4.
West’s campaign has been fraught with controversy throughout its short period. West had first garnered the support of billionaire Elon Musk, before Musk revealed he had urged West to drop out and wait until the next election. West had also held a campaign rally in South Carolina, where he made a statement claiming that Harriet Tubman had not actually freed any slaves. The rapper has publicly suffered from bipolar disorder, with his wife, Kim Kardashian, taking to social media to discuss West’s disorder and emphasizing that he is misunderstood, stating his dreams should not be diminished or considered unobtainable.
