Chicago Rapper Kanye West Files To Appear On Illinois Ballot

CHICAGO, IL — As the November presidential election draws closer, Chicago native and rapper Kanye West is attempting to get his name on ballots in Illinois.

West on Monday submitted his petition to make a run at the Oval Office as an independent, along with 412 pages of signatures supporting his candidacy, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections confirmed Tuesday. An objection window closes at 5 p.m. on July 27, after which the signatures will go to the board to be certified at their Aug. 21 meeting.

West needed to submit 2,500 valid signatures from registered voters in Illinois. If the signatures are certified, West will likely appear on the November ballot. West filed his petition at 4:56 p.m. — four minutes before the filing deadline — after failing to meet South Carolina's deadline on Monday.

Kanye Dines At Pepe's, Shoots Pool In Naperville: Report

Candidates typically need 25,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot — a number that has been drastically reduced for independents and new-party candidates due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

West's team of professional campaign petition circulators traveled from Florida trailer parks, Los Angles suburbs and small-town Maine to collect signatures needed to qualify the Chicago-born rapper's presidential campaign for a slot on the ballot in his home state.

They even posted up outside the Hy-Vee grocery store across the street from the Illinois Board of Elections in Springfield asking shoppers for signatures before Monday's deadline, a state employees said.

Election attorney Pericles Abbasi, who reviewed West's nominating petitions, tweeted that the rapper-candidate submitted about 3,178 signatures — not nearly enough to guarantee a spot on the ballot.

Abbasi, a petition challenge veteran, said typically about 50 percent of signatures collected by paid petition passers survive a challenge. And that's bad news for West's ballot chances.

"If someone challenges them, he's gone," Abbasi said.

West, who is married to Kim Kardashian and attended Polaris High School while growing up in suburban Oak Lawn, announced on July 4 that he is entering the campaign to run for the nation's highest office. However, the road hasn't been smooth since his announcement.

On Sunday, West told a group of supporters at a campaign event in South Carolina that Harriet Tubman "never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people."

And on Monday, West tweeted — and then deleted — a series of comments claiming that Kardashian is attempting to have him hospitalized or have him "locked up with a doctor."

"If I get locked up like Mandela, Ya'll will know why," he wrote.