By now, you know that Kanye West’s windmill-tilting presidential campaign effectively ended in the space of 24 hours on Thursday and Friday, when Wisconsin and Ohio tossed him from their November ballots. He turned in his Wisconsin petitions minutes after the 5 pm Central deadline, though it’s likely he would have been booted off the ballot there in any event due to irregularities with his petitions that would have invalidated all but a fraction of the signatures. In Ohio, the signature on his nominating petition and candidacy statement lodged with the secretary of state didn’t match the signature on the petitions canvassers used to try to help Kanye qualify.
Well, it looks like Kanye might be in even more trouble. Buried in Ben Jacobs’write-up of Kanye’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad last 24 hours is a development that, if there’s anything to it, could potentially land Kanye in some very hot water. Most of the people on a list of potential electors West submitted to Virginia election officials say that they didn’t even know they’d signed up to cast votes for Kanye at the Electoral College.
West may face particular issues in Virginia, where seven of the 13 electors that West submitted told Intelligencer they were either unaware that they signed up to cast electoral votes on his behalf, or that they had signed notarized paperwork connected to the rapper’s presidential bid at all.
At least two of the people on the list were led to believe they were signing a petition to help get someone on the ballot, and didn’t know they were signing up as Kanye electors. Another thought she was signing up as an elector for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, and didn’t know she was signing up for Kanye.
When prominent Never-Trumper Twitter personality “Contented Independent,” a Virginia resident, saw this, he hit the ceiling.
Lest you think this is hyperbole, if Kanye’s canvassers tricked people into signing up as electors, they committed a crime. And given the other reports of dodgy practices in other states by Kanye canvassers, this is firmly in the area where Kanye has to answer for it. Remember, in Wisconsin, a number of people claimed that they were rooked into signing petitions for him.
Even if Kanye isn’t racked up on criminal charges, if there is anything to this and other shady practices by his campaign, he needs to pay with the loss of his career. How is this not moral turpitude?
Hang it up, Kanye. You’re done. And you probably need to be before a judge.
