Kanye West went to his Twitter to announce that he will be running for president during the 2020 elections. Although bold statements like this are in Kanye’s nature, this statement did leave many people confused. This announcement coincides with his presidential interest he mentioned back in 2015 during MTV’s Video Music Awards, but with only four months left until the 2020 elections, many want to know is Mr. West qualified to run for the White House.
West made the announcement over the weekend and the news started a frenzy for music lovers and politicians everywhere. Despite your stance on the news, we cannot ignore that West has already missed a number of deadlines to make it onto state ballots. According to Ballotpedia, West, who would have to run as an independent, will not be eligible to appear on the ballots in Indiana, Maine, North Carolina, New Mexico and Texas. This will set back his campaign tremendously.
The next concern is that West did not register with the Federal Election Commission. According to public records, there’s no record of him registering as a candidate before making his announcement to the public.
There is the possibility that West can enter the race as a write-in candidate. According to People Magazine, “A 2016 report from the Washington Post, 32 states require write-in candidates to file paperwork ahead of election day in order to be considered official candidates. In those states, votes for any candidates who did not register are often counted alongside all of the other non-registered write-in votes and individual totals are not calculated.”
As of right now, West has not made any further statements in regards to his registration process but we will follow along as this story develops.