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Kanye West registered as Republican in Park County, WY, potentially blocking run as independent in Arizona
By Frank Miles
Published September 01, 2020
Rapper Kanye West may be blocked from running for president as an independent in Arizona because he’s registered as a Republican in Wyoming, according to a report.
A lawsuit claims West is violating Arizona law. According to the lawsuit, filed Monday in the Maricopa County Superior Court:
“The Secretary of State's forms for "Independent" nomination papers for president, vice president, and presidential electors asks the submitting party to sign a form that states, among other things:
"I meet the statutory requirements to be nominated as a candidate for public office at the general election and I am not a member of a recognized political party in the State of Arizona."
Friday is the deadline for West to have at least 40,000 petition signatures to qualify for the November ballot; next Tuesday millions of ballots for the November election are set to go to the printer.
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Arizona is a battleground state where a candidate winning 2 or 3 percent of the vote could decide the fate of the presidential election.
“Waiting is not an option,” attorneys for the plaintiff, Rasean Carlton, said in 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.”
West announced a presidential bid in July, saying he’s seeking the nation’s highest office on a ticket he calls the “Birthday Party.”
West has since been gathering signatures to get on the ballot in several states.
West has qualified in a handful of states, including Tennessee, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Utah.
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Democrats claim Republicans are pushing West's candidacy in several swing states to siphon Black votes away from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
West, who once backed Republican President Trump, announced last month that he had broken with Trump and would launch his own presidential bid.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kanye-west-registered-as-republican-in-park-county-wy-potentially-blocking-run-as-independent-in-arizona