In less than a week, Kanye West went from filing the paperwork to appear on the presidential ballot on the Nov. 3 general election back to just being a Cody resident and rap star.

The deadline for candidates to be placed on the ballot was at 5 p.m. Monday, according to an email from Wyoming Secretary of State spokesman Will Dinneen.

West needed two gather 4,025 valid signatures of qualified electors -- registered voters -- to qualify, Dinneen wrote.

"Mr. Brock Pierce submitted signatures for verification. Mr. Kanye West did not," he wrote.

The Secretary of State's Office will now validate candidate signatures submitted by Pierce in order to place his name on the general election ballot, Dinneen wrote.

Independent presidential candidate Pierce, a Minnesota native and Puerto Rico resident, is a former Disney child actor in the "Mighty Ducks" movie, early digital currency pioneer, and chairman of the nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation. In 2018, Forbes Magazine estimated his net worth at between $700 million and $1 billion.

West is rich, too.

But he didn't have the same signature-gathering ability of Pierce.

West filed with the Secretary of State to be on the presidential ballot late Aug. 17, the day before the primary election for Republican and Democratic party candidates.

He, like Pierce, needed 4,025 signatures.

According to the Secretary of State, West didn't submit any signatures.

During the primary in Natrona and Laramie counties, some of those working on his behalf violated the law that prohibits electioneering -- in this case gathering signatures for petitions -- within 100 yards of a polling place, Dinneen said last week.

"We have heard reports about petition gatherers gathering signatures for that same presidential campaign near polling locations in Laramie County and now Natrona County," Dinneen said.

"Certainly, the law says what the law says, and there are restrictions for electioneering within certain distances around polling places," Dinneen said. "It's up to election judges, county clerks and the Secretary of State's Office to enforce the law."

If he had been successful, he would have appeared on the ballot in Wyoming as well as Arkansas, Utah, Colorado and Oklahoma.

However,  he did not qualify in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Ohio, Montana and West Virginia.

West has filed to appear on the presidential ballot in Tennessee and Louisiana.

Laramie Live logo
Enter your number to get our free mobile app

John Dutton's "Yellowstone" Ranch is Real and Here are 12 Pics

MUST SEE: John Dutton's Yellowstone Ranch is Real and Here are 12 Pics

 

MUST SEE: John Dutton's Yellowstone Ranch is Real and Here are 12 Pics

More From Laramie Live