Kanye is out (UPDATE: Kanye is in again)

[The Mikado]

From 2015:

[The Mikado]

States where the filing deadline has already passed for an independent candidate:

Indiana
Maine
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Texas

Well, that's not too bad, right? That's only six states!

Thing is, there's a bunch more in July, including some with extremely high signatures. 10,000 signatures by July 15th for South Carolina. 132,781(!) signatures by July 15th for Florida. 30,000 signatures by July 16th for Michigan.

[The Mikado]

States where the filing deadline has already passed for an independent candidate:

Indiana
Maine
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Texas

Well, that's not too bad, right? That's only six states!

Thing is, there's a bunch more in July, including some with extremely high signatures. 10,000 signatures by July 15th for South Carolina. 132,781(!) signatures by July 15th for Florida. 30,000 signatures by July 16th for Michigan.

Apparently, NY changed its deadline when they delayed the primaries.

Updated NY filing deadline is July 30th with a 30k signature requirement, so Kanye West could in fact make the ballot in NY.

[The Mikado]

States where the filing deadline has already passed for an independent candidate:

Indiana
Maine
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Texas

Well, that's not too bad, right? That's only six states!

Thing is, there's a bunch more in July, including some with extremely high signatures. 10,000 signatures by July 15th for South Carolina. 132,781(!) signatures by July 15th for Florida. 30,000 signatures by July 16th for Michigan.

Apparently, NY changed its deadline when they delayed the primaries.

Updated NY filing deadline is July 30th with a 30k signature requirement, so Kanye West could in fact make the ballot in NY.

a crucially important swing state

I'm assuming if Kanye ran, his goal would just be to get as many votes as possible to flex his muscles a bit rather than to try to actually win, and there's a lot of votes in NY.

[The Mikado]

There’s ALOT of enthusiasm on Twitter about his supposed candidacy from young people who say they hate both candidates and think they’re both equally bad (which I disagree with). I know twitter doesn’t matter and it didn’t help Bernie or Cenk, but still, it’s really scary the level of apathy I’ve seen. The level of disillusionment.

Lol.  The youth are apathetic and disillusioned?  When have the youth not been apathetic and disillusioned?

When they turned out in droves for the optimistic 2008 candidacy of Barack Obama (their turnout has been differential in other elections to significant extents, such as the 2018 midterms, but that's probably the best example of an unambiguously positive vote). Their disillusionment has grown in line with an increasingly common sentiment within other sections of society.

Literally no one who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 is in the "youth" age demographic now.

[The Mikado]

That platform is most appealing to non voting conspiracy theorists and fringe fundamentalist Christians.

Yeah, I was gonna say. None of the stuff he is running on would actually appeal to the voters he could reasonably win over (younger, disillusioned people who don't like Biden or Trump).

Right. Somehow I find it hart to see any soft  Biden supporters abandoning him for an anti abortion, anti vax candidate with no tax or foreign policy plan who says God told him to run. Not to mention his answer on police brutality was also very Trumpy.

Many conservative African American voters will vote for a religious candidate.

LOL at the idea of the fire and brimstone black Southern Baptist preachers and the three foot hat church ladies in the congregation giving a second thought to Kanye West. That portion of black America didn't like Kanye West when he was a musician, why are they suddenly gonna like him now?

Conservative religious black people are, as a general rule, not huge fans of rappers, especially ones married to Kim Kardashian. I don't know why that's such a hard concept to grasp.