Two Presidential Electors for Kanye West in Virginia Sue State Elections Board, Arguing They Were Misled Into Signing Up as Presidential Elector Candidates

Posted on by September 2, 2020
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On September 1, two of Kanye West’s presidential elector candidates in Virginia sued the Virginia State Board of Elections, arguing they were tricked into signing up as presidential elector candidates for West. The lawsuit is in Circuit Court, Richmond City, Wilson v Virginia State Board of Elections.

Under El-Amin v State Board of Elections, independent candidates in Virginia have a constitutional right to resign from the ticket and be replaced. 721 F.Supp.770 (e.d., 1989). Thus it seems the more logical approach would be for the electors to simply resign as electors, and let the West campaign replace them. Electors must sign a declaration of candidacy that is notarized, but the complaint says that the notary did not notarize the declarations in front of them. Furthermore the notary was herself one of the candidates for elector, and the Virginia law on notaries does not permit notaries to notarize documents in which they themselves have an interest.

Alaska Green Party Nominates Jesse Ventura for President

Posted on by September 1, 2020
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On September 1, the Alaska Green Party nominated Jesse Ventura for President and Cynthia McKinney for Vice-President. The Green Party is not ballot-qualified generally in Alaska, but earlier this year it completed the petition to give it “limited Political Party” status. A “limited political party” in Alaska is ballot-qualified for president, but nothing else. Thanks to Tim San Souci for this news. See this story.

Ventura did not ask for this nomination, but he did indicate some interest earlier this year in being the presidential nominee of the Green Party, and he received a handful of votes at the party’s July 2020 convention, even though he had not been placed in nomination.

Maine Supreme Court Will Hear Case Over Ranked Choice Voting for President on September 3

Posted on by September 1, 2020
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On September 3, the Maine Supreme Court will hear Jones v Dunlap, CUM-20-227. This is the case over whether the Republican Party-backed referendum petition has enough valid signatures. The lower state court had ruled that it does have enough valid signatures. If the State Supreme Court reverses the lower court, then Maine voters will use ranked choice voting for president in November.

Kanye West Sues West Virginia Over Lack of Opportunity for Him to Challenge Decision that He Didn’t Have Enough Valid Signatures

Posted on by August 31, 2020
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On August 28, Kanye West filed a federal lawsuit against the West Virginia Secretary of State, alleging that the state invalidated over 50% of his signatures and then gave him no chance to double-check the work of the election officials who had examined the signatures. West had submitted over 14,000 signatures. He needed 7,144. The state said only 6,383 of his signatures are valid. West v Warner, s.d., 2:20cv-570. Here is the Complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Irene C. Berger, an Obama appointee. Thanks to Jeff Becker for this news.

Tennessee Finishes Validating Presidential Petitions

Posted on by August 31, 2020
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The Tennessee Secretary of State finished validating independent presidential petitions on August 31. Six were valid: Rocky De La Fuente, Howie Hawkins, Jo Jorgensen, Alyson Kennedy, Gloria La Riva, and Kanye West.

On August 31 two petitions that had been under review were rejected: those of Don Blankenship and Brock Pierce. Here is the link to the Secretary of State’s list of presidential candidates.