Kanye West fails to make ballot in three states 

Rapper Kanye West failed to qualify to make the ballot for the November presidential election in Ohio, Illinois and West Virginia after receiving help from Republican operatives. 

In order to qualify as an independent candidate for president in Ohio, West needed 5,000 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters. Earlier this month West’s campaign submitted documents to the Ohio secretary of state that included 14,886 signatures.

The Ohio Department of State announced Friday that upon reviewing the documents submitted by West, they determined “both 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,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) said in a statement. “There is no doubt that the West nominating petition and declaration of candidacy failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.”    

The paperwork West filed in Ohio included six electors who had the same address, while several others had repeating addresses in the Cleveland area. 

Ohio is one of a handful of key battleground states that President Trump won by a narrow margin in 2016 and where Democratic nominee Joe Biden is creeping up in polls.

West was reportedly helped submit those documents by GOP operatives through the petitioning company Let the Voters Decide. The organization is led by Mark Jacoby, who was arrested on charges of voter fraud while working in California for the Republican Party in 2008, The New York Times reported.

The Illinois State Board of Elections also decided on Friday that West, a Chicago native, did not qualify to make the ballot in the state. The board voted 8-0 to finalize the November ballot without West’s name because he fell short of filing the required number of signatures, the Chicago Tribune reported.

In West Virginia, West did not turn in enough valid signatures to make the ballot, election officials told The Hill. He needed 7,144 valid signatures, but only 6,383 were turned in. 

West already missed the filing deadline is a slew of states, including Texas, Michigan and Florida.

In a Politico-Morning Consult national poll released last week, West received 2 percent support, which was 7 points behind the 9 percent of respondents who said they have “no opinion.”