COLUMBUS — Rapper Kanye West sued Ohio’s top elections official Wednesday in an effort to be placed on the November presidential ballot after the Secretary of State deemed him unqualified as an independent candidate.
West’s emergency filing against Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose comes days after the election’s chief rejected the nearly 15,000 signatures and other paperwork the rapper submitted earlier this month in an attempt to run for president, citing mismatched information on the signature-gathering documents.
The complaint alleges that it is LaRose’s duty to accept any petition for an independent candidate as long as there is no protest filed against the petition and it is not in violation of Ohio statue.
West has qualified for the ballots in Tennessee, Minnesota and Idaho, as well as Utah, Arkansas, Colorado and Oklahoma.
He has missed the deadlines or failed to qualify in several other states.
Democrats claim Republicans are pushing West’s candidacy in several swing states to siphon Black votes away from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.