Bad Signatures Sink Kanye West’s Montana Ballot Bid

The Associated Press reports:

An effort to qualify Kanye West for the ballot in Montana as a presidential candidate has fallen short, the secretary of state’s office said Thursday.

Only 3,972 signatures out of nearly 8,800 turned in were deemed valid, state officials said. West needed 5,000 to qualify as an independent candidate. It wasn’t clear who was behind the petition effort in Montana. One of the signature gathering supervisors, Micah Marchbanks, said West was paying the signature gatherers.

He also said he believed they had turned in enough signatures to get West on the ballot. Nearly all of the signatures came from Yellowstone County, which validated 3,400 signatures and rejected about 4,200.

Per the AP, only 3,972 of the nearly 8,800 signatures that Kanye West’s campaign submitted in Montana were judged to be valid. He needed 5,000. https://t.co/g5JVab5NLX

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) August 20, 2020