Judge orders Kanye West removed from Virginia ballot

A Richmond, Va., judge on Thursday ruled that Kanye West will not appear on the ballot in the state.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) accused the rapper’s campaign of fraudulently gaining access to the ballot, according to a Richmond NBC affiliate.

“Their signatures are obtained by being told they were doing one thing and then their signature was used for another purpose,” argued Justin Sheldon, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “So their testimony was if they had actually been told what they were going to be used for, they definitely would not have been signing these pieces of paper.”

The judge agreed with the plaintiffs that 11 of West’s 13 electors were invalid and obtained by improper or fraudulent means.

On Tuesday, Perkins Coie, a law firm with links to several prominent Democrats, sued in Richmond Circuit Court on behalf of two people who claimed they were tricked into listing themselves as electors. It specifically alleges at least four of the signatures were collected under false pretenses.

“Defendants have a legal duty to ensure that only the names of the candidates who meet the requirements of Virginia law are placed on the ballots in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” the lawsuit stated.

Herring filed for an emergency hearing the next day, saying Virginia “does not tolerate any type of election fraud.”

“Similarly, this Court has had little patience for keeping candidates on the ballot who have used underhanded and fraudulent tactics to ‘steal a spot on the ballot,’ ” Herring said Wednesday.

West, who announced his bid for the presidency July 4, has made the ballot in Minnesota, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont. Republican operatives have been linked to his attempts to get on the ballot in at least five states, according to The Washington Post.