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Kanye West's presidential ballot petition challenged over handwriting similarities

West presidential campaign has missed petition deadlines in several states

Graig Graziosi
Friday 31 July 2020 00:31 BST
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Kanye talks about nearly being aborted at first campaign rally

Superstar rapper Kanye West‘s ballot petition to have his name added as a presidential candidate in the 2020 us election has been called “egregiously bad, almost to an insulting degree”, by a former New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate.

Scott Salmon, a lawyer in New Jersey, noted that 30 names in a row on Mr West’s petition appear to sign their names with little circles above the letter “i,” which he believes is evidence of inauthentic signatures.

“The odds that 30 people in a row from all over the state would have a little circle about the Is is a little hard to believe,” he wrote in a letter to the New Jersey Board of Elections.

An independent candidate can get their name on the ballot for the presidential election in New Jersey if they collect 800 signatures. Mr Salmon claims that at least 600 names were of questionable authenticity.

Mr West’s campaign petitions included 1,300 signatures, according to the New York Daily News.

“Mr. West’s petitions do not contain the valid signatures of 800 qualified voters and should have been rejected by the Division,” Mr Salmon wrote.

Mr West’s decision to enter the presidential race has been unconventional at best, as he bounces back and forth between claims that he plans to enter and that he will not run. He has missed the deadline for getting his name on the ballot in several states, and his petition in Illinois is also being challenged.

The rap icon formerly supported Donald Trump, but said that he was “taking the red hat off” in an interview with Forbes Magazine.

A strange campaign rally he held in South Carolina – in which he wore a bulletproof vest and launched into a rant about Harriet Tubman – raised concerns about Mr West’s mental health. The rapper has acknowledged that he does suffer from bi-polar disorder, and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, has called for “compassion and empathy” when dealing with her husband.

Mr Salmon told Politico that his concerns with Mr West’s candidacy had nothing to do with the man’s health, but rather the alleged fraudulent petition he offered.

“I’m not his doctor. I’m not his wife. So I don’t know what his mental state is. I’ve seen the reports. I’m just looking at this based on what the law is in New Jersey, and this doesn’t meet this level,” he said.

New Jersey is expected to support presumed Democratic candidate Joe Biden by a large margin, and independent candidates in the state have historically performed poorly.

An analysis by Forbes suggested Mr West would likely take more votes away from Mr Trump than from Mr Biden. The superstar’s campaign has aroused the most interest among individuals identifying as Libertarian.

Mr West’s running mate, Michelle Tidball, is a 57-year-old dental office worker who runs an online Bible study and claims she has direct access to communicate with God.

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