Kanye West’s presidential campaign received bad news this week in Arizona when a judge removed his name from the general election ballot in the state.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott McCoy sided with Arizona resident Rasean Clayton in a lawsuit that sought to remove the rapper’s name as an independent candidate from the Arizona ballot because of his affiliation with the Republican Party.
Clayton’s lawsuit argued that West could not be an independent on the Nov. 3 ballot because he is a registered Republican in his home state of Wyoming and noted that almost of his electors, who would cast Electoral College votes for the candidate, were Republicans until they just recently changed their registrations to independent.
Clayton claimed West’s inclusion on the ballot would cause “harm” to voters in the state who would be throwing “away a vote on a disqualified candidate” if the rapper-turned-presidential candidate appeared on the ballot. McCoy agreed with Clayton, noting that West’s inclusion on the ballot could confuse voters in the Southwestern state.
West was also thrown off the Virginia ballot on Thursday, where his campaign had filed more than 5,000 signatures with the election officials, after two men filed a lawsuit claiming that volunteers with West’s campaign had misled them during the signature-gathering process.
West is set to appear on the presidential ballot in Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, and several other states. It remains unclear whether West’s team will appeal the ruling.
