The Ohio Secretary of State has rejected the independent presidential petition of Kanye West, even though it had over 14,000 signatures and only 5,000 were required. The Secretary of State says the original declaration of candidacy doesn’t match the copy of the declaration of candidacy used on each petition sheet. Thus, the Secretary of State didn’t even bother to check the validity of the petition signatures.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas E. Johnston will hear Wilson v Justice, s.d., 2:20cv-526, on Monday, August 24, at 1:30 p.m. This is the ballot access case filed by independent gubernatorial candidate Marshall Wilson.
On August 20, some of the Montana Green Party nominees asked the Ninth Circuit to put the Green Party back on the ballot. Davis v Stapleton, 20-35734.
On August 20, the Wisconsin Election Commission removed Howie Hawkins and Kanye West from the November ballot. Hawkins’ petition was rejected because some of the signatures were collected on forms giving the old address of the vice-presidential nominee, and some on forms giving her new address. Kanye West was rejected because his petition was submitted past 5:00 pm on the filing deadline.
Hawkins will sue. In 2004 the Wisconsin Supreme Court put Ralph Nader on the ballot even though he did not have a presidential elector candidate in every U.S. House district. The Wisconsin Supreme Court said that requirement is “directory” in nature, meaning if the elector residency requirement is not met, that is not fatal to the petition. State ex rel Nader v Circuit Court for Dane County, decision of Sep. 30, 2004, 04-2559-W.
The vote was 3-3. All the Democratic Party representatives on the Commission voted against Hawkins; all the Republicans voted for him.
On August 20, the Montana Secretary of State said the independent presidential petition for Kanye West doesn’t have enough valid signatures. The law requires 5,000 signatures with no distribution requirement. He submitted approximately 8,000. See this story.
