Kanye West on politics: what the evidence says · JRE #1554

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

West's claim of official ballot access in 12 states is accurate: contemporaneous reporting and final 2020 election results confirm he appeared on the ballot in exactly 12 states (Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont), receiving roughly 66,000 to 70,000 votes total. The 17-state write-in figure is not corroborated by contemporaneous reporting; documented, qualified write-in status was confirmed in only a small number of additional states, such as Maryland and Delaware, with several other attempts (including California and West's own home state of Wyoming) failing due to missed filing deadlines or incomplete paperwork. Most states require write-in candidates to pre-register by a deadline, and by October 2020, when this claim would have been made, many of those deadlines had already passed nationwide. As a result, the ballot-access portion of the claim is well-supported, while the write-in eligibility figure appears substantially exaggerated relative to documented write-in qualifications.