West cleared to appear on Miss. ballot
JACKSON, Miss. — Kanye West will appear as a presidential candidate on Mississippi’s ballot in November, after being approved as a qualified candidate by the State Board of Election Commissioners on Tuesday.
The rapper has already qualified to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate in several states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Utah.
To qualify in Mississippi, he was required to pay a $2,500 fee to the Secretary of State’s Office and get the signatures of at least 1,000 Mississippi voters.
Meanwhile, the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected West’s bid to appear on the state’s Nov. 3 ballot as an independent presidential candidate, just hours before eight of the state’s 15 counties faced a deadline for printing ballots.
The decision marked the end of the rapper’s attempt to run in Arizona. He had appealed a lower-court decision last week that barred him from the ballot.
The Supreme Court concluded West’s electors — who would have cast Electoral College votes if he had won the most votes of any candidate in Arizona — failed to file an election document stated their names and political parties. The justices said any nominating signatures collected before presidential electors filed their “statements of interest” are invalid.
Maricopa, Pima, Apache, Mohave, Pinal, Cochise, Coconino and La Paz counties faced a late Tuesday afternoon deadline for printing ballots. The deadline for the remaining counties is late Wednesday afternoon.
A message left Tuesday for Tim Lasota, an attorney representing West, wasn’t immediately returned.
West’s campaign has spent more than $1 million in Arizona.