West files lawsuit to try to get on Wisconsin ballot
The campaign for rapper Kanye West filed a lawsuit Friday against the state Elections Commission in a bid to get on the presidential ballot in Wisconsin this November.
The 12-page suit was filed in Brown County Circuit Court.
The state Elections Commission voted 5-1 last week to keep West off the ballot because it found that his campaign had filed its nomination papers shortly after the 5 p.m. deadline Aug. 4.
West is running on the Birthday Party ticket with vice presidential candidate Michelle Tidball.
Reached Friday afternoon, Michael Curran of West’s campaign had no comment. Staff for the Wisconsin Election Commission could not be reached.
In the suit, West’s attorneys focus solely on the issue of whether his campaign team filed its nomination papers on time.
They argue that state Elections Board staff members impeded the West campaign by locking the door to the building before the 5 p.m. deadline. A staffer had to unlock the door for the campaign staff to come in and file the nomination papers.
West’s campaign also says the staff failed to keep accurate track of when the ballot access papers were filed.
“The court should issue a declaratory judgment and injunction in favor of Kanye West and Michelle Tidball causing them to be on the November 3 general election ballot,” wrote West’s attorneys, Erick Kaardal and Gregory Erickson of Minneapolis.
West, who is hoping to get on the ballot in a handful of states, turned in more than 2,400 signatures on his nomination papers, more than the 2,000 minimum needed for an independent candidate to get on the ballot in Wisconsin. West is on the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont.
But staff for the state Elections Commission
found that West’s campaign team failed to file the signatures on time. The bipartisan Elections Commission went along with the staff recommendation, with three Democrats and two Republicans voting against West.
Republican Robert Spindell voted to put West on the November ballot.
In the lawsuit, West’s attorneys repeat the argument they made before the Elections Commission that the campaign team had until 59 seconds after 5 p.m. to file the papers.
“The nomination papers for Kanye West as President and Michelle Tidball for Vice President were presented to the filing officer in compliance with the statutory text ‘not later than 5 p.m.,’” Kaardal and Erickson wrote.
The commission rejected that argument, saying it is inconsistent with past actions of the election panel.
In general, Democrats are concerned that a West candidacy will siphon votes from former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat who will face Trump in November.
Wisconsin Republicans took an active part in trying to get West on the ballot. At least five of his 10 electors are Republican activists or Trump supporters. Also, Lane Ruhland, an attorney for the Trump campaign in a Wisconsin lawsuit , helped file the nomination papers for the West campaign.
In fact, the West campaign is able to file its lawsuit in Brown County because one of its electors, Fred Krumberger, is based there. Krumberger is a Brown County Republican Party volunteer, and his wife, Marian, is the immediate past chairwoman of the county GOP.
One Wisconsin Republican source has said the goal is for West to get 107,000 votes, about what Libertarian Gary Johnson did in 2016. Trump won the state by a little more than 22,000 votes.
Earlier this week, West’s attorneys filed a lawsuit in Ohio in the hopes of getting on the presidential ballot there as well.