Kanye West’s Campaign Accused of Lying to Get Signatures in Virginia
Written by SOURCE on August 30, 2020
Kanye West‘s embattled presidential campaign, which many have accused of being a ploy to divert votes from Joe Biden in an effort to help Donald Trump, is facing more charges of gathering signatures using deceptive methods, The Washington Post reports.
This time around, claims of the campaign’s fraudulent behavior have been filed in Virginia. The State Board of Elections received two signed affidavits from registered voters claiming that West’s campaign purposely misled them into signing up to be electors for the artist.
“I am so embarrassed,” Matthan Wilson said, per the Post. “I don’t want to be an elector for Kanye West. I don’t want to vote for Kanye West. I only like one or two of his songs.” Wilson, who’s a 53-year-old high school teacher, explained that three people came up to him while he was riding his bike and asked if he wanted to join in a statewide pool of electors. He later realized that electors are appointed by a party and don’t volunteer. Wilson said he found out from a reporter that what he actually signed up for was to be a pledged elector for Kanye.
“I feel that I’ve been cheated,” Wilson added.
Samantha Durant also filed an affidavit saying that a group of people came up to her about getting “an independent candidate on the ballot.” Durant said she was unaware that it was for Kanye.
Despite the claims, Kanye is set to appear on the Virginia ballot in November as an independent after submitting 5,000 petition signatures with a minimum of 200 coming from each congressional district. It’s unclear if the affidavits will change this. Kanye will so far only appear on the ballots of a handful of states, such as Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Vermont, Utah, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Idaho, making it mathematically impossible for him to win the election.
Praise God … look at all the ballots we’re on On 🕊
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Vermont
West Virginia
Colorado
Iowa
Utah
Minnesota
Tennessee
Virginia
— ye (@kanyewest) August 21, 2020
It was previously reported that Kanye was accused of submitting fake signatures in Wisconsin. His campaign eventually failed to get on the state’s ballot after the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 and ruled that the necessary paperwork was not filed before the deadline.
