The [Wisconsin] state Democratic Party filed a complaint Friday asking state officials to block rapper Kanye West from appearing on the presidential ballot in Wisconsin this November, saying his campaign was tardy submitting its signatures.
The challenge also suggests there are numerous problems with West's nomination papers, including incorrect addresses for circulators and bogus signatures, such as "Mickey Mouse" and "Bernie Sanders." It also included affidavits from six individuals who said they were duped into putting their names on West's paperwork.
"If the affidavits are true … crimes were committed by the West campaign," said attorney Michael Maistelman, who gathered the affidavits for the state Democratic Party.
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The deadline for filing challenges was Friday.
Democrats are concerned a West candidacy could siphon votes from former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat who will likely face Republican President Donald Trump in November.
One Wisconsin Republican source says the goal is for West to get 107,000 votes here, about what Libertarian Gary Johnson did in 2016.
Both complaints argue that West should be kept off the November ballot because his team didn't file its papers with the state Elections Commission by Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline. The Journal Sentinel reported that
it appears that an attorney for the West campaign missed the crucial deadline by at least a minute or two.
"Wisconsin election laws provide [West] over a month to collect and submit nomination papers, and his failure to do so within the time prescribed in the statute is fatal to his attempted filing," Santeler wrote in his challenge.
The Democratic Party's complaint found a number of technical errors with the nomination papers. Among the signatures on West's nomination papers, for instance, are two from "Kanye West" and one each from "Mickey Mouse" and "Bernie Sanders" of Vermont. All listed Milwaukee addresses.
In addition, several of the circulators gave bogus addresses on the nomination papers, according to the complaint. One circulator said he lived in an area in Illinois that is zoned for industrial use only. A second circulator listed a California residence, but the complaint says he hasn't lived there in years.
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As for the affidavits, six individuals said they did not know they were signing nomination papers to get on the ballot.
Cheryl Pernell of Milwaukee County said she was asked to sign the document outside a Walmart. The circulator told her that her signature was needed to make sure she was registered to vote. She learned only later that she had put her name on West's nomination papers.
"If I had known that, I wouldn't have signed the papers, absolutely not," Pernell said in her affidavit. "Kanye West would not get my vote and I think it is a joke that he is running for president."
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Also on Friday, a national group filed a complaint with the Office of Lawyer Regulation, accusing Madison attorney Lane Ruhland of representing Trump and West's campaign at the same time.
Ruhland, an attorney for Trump's reelection campaign, submitted the nominating papers for West's candidacy to the state Elections Commission this week.
"Simultaneous legal representation of two candidates competing for the same office is a paradigmatic example of a conflict of interest," said the three-page filing by Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the left-leaning Campaign for Accountability.
Ruhland, a former attorney for the state Republican Party, did not immediately respond to the complaint.
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Fuck.
