On September 10, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously rejected Kanye West’s independent presidential petition. Although it had enough valid signatures, each sheet needed to have a photocopy of the original declaration of candidacy. But the West petition used a copy of a declaration of candidacy that was not submitted as the original declaration. The opinion has photocopies of the original declaration and also of the declaration that was shown on each petition sheet. State ex rel West v LaRose, 2020-Ohio-4380. Here is the 14-page opinion.

Opponents of ballot status for Kanye West have asked the Idaho Secretary of State to remove West from the ballot as an independent presidential candidate, on the grounds that he is a registered Republican in Wyoming. See this story.

This same issue arose in Idaho in 2016, when the Secretary of State determined that Darrell Castle could be an independent presidential candidate in Idaho, even though he was affiliated with the national Constitution Party and was its presidential nominee that year.

The true candidates in November are presidential elector candidates. Presidential candidates’ names appear on the November ballot, not as candidates, but as identifiers for competing slates of elector candidates. Therefore it doesn’t make sense to let the party registration of a presidential candidate affect his or her ballot position. The electors have a right to tell the public whom they would vote for if they were elected to the electoral college. No presidential candidate in history had ever been barred from a ballot on the basis of how he or she was registered, until an Arizona trial court earlier this year said West could not be on the Arizona ballot because of his registration. But when he appealed, the State Supreme Court did not keep him off on that basis; instead it kept him off because his presidential elector candidates had not filled out a campaign finance form.

Other presidential candidates who used the Idaho independent presidential procedure even though they were affiliated with political parties have been Jill Stein, a registered Green in Massachusetts who appeared in 2012 and 2016 in Idaho as an independent; Rocky Anderson, who used the Idaho independent procedure even though he was a registered member of the Justice Party in Utah; and John Anderson, who used it in 1980 even though he was affiliated with the Illinois Republican Party throughout calendar year 1980. Thanks to Gregg Keller for the link. UPDATE: news reports say that Secretary of State Lawrence Denney says he should not have been put West on the ballot, even though Denney was the same Secretary of State who put Darrell Castle on the ballot as an independent in 2016. Denney also says he thinks it is too late to remove West from the ballot.