Kanye Responds to Fake Signatures Complaint, Reportedly Accuses Wisconsin Democrats of Spying

After Wisconsin Democrats accused him of rustling up fake signatures to get his name on their state's ballot, Kanye West accuses them of spying on his campaign.

Kanye West spotted in New York City.
Getty

Image via Getty/GC Images/James Devaney

Kanye West spotted in New York City.

Kanye West has responded to a complaint from the Wisconsin Democratic Party, in which they contended that he submitted fake signatures (and then turned the papers in late), by accusing those Democrats of spying on his campaign, according to TMZ.

Prior to the leveling of that accusation, the Badger State's Dems tried to block West from getting on the ballot. On account of them arguing that his ballot bid was both late and filled with phony signatures, that's not really very shocking. 

As stated in documents TMZ reportedly obtained, Kanye says the Democrats had a private investigator track his team, which he argued was an "organized effort of harassment and intimidation" against his presidential run. He further argues they found nothing illegitimate. 

Last week, West put together signatures and paperwork aimed at getting him onto Wisconsin's ballot. Signatures from 2,000 registered voters were necessary to make that happen. TMZ writes that the third-party petitioning group Let the Voters Decide teamed with him to try and reach that goal. 

A complaint filed on Friday proposes that Kanye's campaign submitted sham signatures. That complaint reportedly included affidavits from voters who say they were tricked into putting their names toward his ballot effort. TMZ writes that Kanye "claims the complaint filed on Friday seeking to prevent him from getting on the ballot was submitted by a man who is widely reported to be a front for the Democratic Party."

Evidently West's campaign also turned his signatures in 14 seconds after a hard 5 p.m. deadline on Aug. 4. There's since been debate about whether that should be acceptable, considering it wasn't yet 5:01 p.m. "The statutory provision does not distinguish between minutes and seconds," said lawyer Michael Curran. He went on to add, "Even assuming filing was not timely to begin with, the Commission should find that the nomination paperwork was timely filed here due to the locking of the Commission’s doors as well as the interference of the media and a rival campaign."

Wisconsin's Elections Commission will now review the relevant paperwork and recommend the next course of action to a bipartisan panel composed of a trio of Democrats and a trio of Republicans. 

What happened with Kanye's campaign in Illinois seems highly pertinent here, as it was decided he wouldn't be on his home state's ballot because election officials decided more than half the submitted signatures were not valid.

All that said, if true, this does not seem like a wise thing to be doing.

In other news, Kanye got the hopes of fans who want to see a sequel to Watch the Throne up after he tweeted that he missed his "bro" Jay-Z.

Miss my bro ... real talk pic.twitter.com/qFS5HwYZxU

Latest in Music