#Kanye West qualifies to appear on 2020 Utah ballot

Rapper-turned-presidential candidate Kanye West has qualified to appear on the 2020 Utah ballot in November, the state elections office confirmed.

State elections director Justin Lee said Monday his office had verified that the billionaire sneaker mogul’s campaign had collected the 1,000 signatures needed to appear on the ballot.

Utah marks the fifth state in which West has qualified to be on the ballot. He had already gained ballot access in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Vermont.

West will appear as an unaffiliated candidate.

Since launching his late-entry presidential bid over the July 4 weekend, the rap superstar has fought an uphill battle for ballot access state by state without any of the traditional campaign infrastructure.

Unfortunately for the rapper, his entry into the race came too late for Indiana, New Mexico, North Carolina and Texas, where the filing deadlines for independent presidential candidates had already passed.

Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and South Carolina’s filing deadlines followed in the days after West’s announcement, leaving him unable to make them.

Oklahoma had a close deadline, but a representative for West met it just in time with the necessary paperwork and $35,000 filing fee.

Of the 538 electoral votes up for grabs in the general election, candidates need 270 to win the presidency. By the first week in August, West had already forfeited 225 Electoral College votes due to missed deadlines or problems with his filing petitions.

In recent weeks, the deadlines have also gone by for Illinois and New Jersey, where West was booted from the ballots for invalid signatures.

West is also facing a legal challenge regarding his ballot application in Wisconsin.

With Post wires