Kanye West has filed to be on Arkansas’ presidential ballot and has listed Michelle Tidball, a life coach based in Wyoming, as his vice president.
It comes after canvassers and volunteers this weekend tried to rack up petition signatures for the presidential ballot in Ohio – a key swing state that could decide who sits in the Oval Office after November.
It also follows a tumultuous month that included a bizarre first campaign rally in South Carolina, a series of tweets that touched on everything from abortion to cheating allegations lodged at his wife Kim Kardashian and concerns over the rapper’s mental health.
But on Monday, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Secretary of State told TMZ that Kanye’s campaign turned in the needed 1,000 signatures to qualify for the November election ballot.
Kanye West’s (pictured) presidential campaign on Monday filed to appear on Arkansas’ presidential ballot come November
The forms were reportedly turned in just 15 minutes before the Arkansas’ noon deadline.
Unlike his submissions in New Jersey, Illinois and Oklahoma, he listed Michelle Tidball as his Vice President.
Kanye, 43, first named Tidball as his potential Vice President on the Fourth of July when he publicly announced he was running for office on Twitter.
He listed her as his Vice President once before on his submission to Missouri.
Tidball, 57, described herself as a ‘biblical life coach’ and has previously mentioned on one of her teleconfrences that she does not ‘watch news.’
She hails from Cody, Wyoming – the same town where Kanye owns a $14 million ranch – but she has scrubbed clean her web presence in recent days.
However, internet archives reveal a glimpse into the mind of the elusive ‘Biblical life coach’, who reportedly ran the website Yarash.org.
The site was ‘under construction’, but TMZ accessed one archived page featuring a biography of Tidball.
Tidball was reportedly visited by God when she was just six months old and on the brink of death.
On the Arkansas form, he listed Michelle Tidball (pictured), a life coach from Wyoming, as his vice president
‘In a hospital tent God first visited me and spoke life and destiny which I can still recall today,’ the biography states.
Tidball’s religious convictions only grew stronger, as she recounts: ‘Being raised in the church I loved God, encountered Him, but wanted to know more. At seventeen I had an encounter in the heavenly realms and made a decision to serve Him all the days of my life’.
The biography further states that Tidball has ‘various degrees in mental health and criminal justice.’
TMZ confirmed she received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Wyoming in 2003, but her additional academic credentials are unclear.
It’s unclear how the potential running mates met, but Tidball told DailyMail.com that the rapper was doing ‘just fine’ after he shared series of shocking tweets two weeks ago.
Now, election officials in Arkansas will undergo the process of verifying the signatures as legitimate.Accusations of fraudulent signatures for Kanye’s ballot have sparked in Illinois and New Jersey.
Although Kanye’s campaign secured Arkansas, they missed nearby Kansas.
A spokesperson for the Kansas Secretary of State’s office said they needed 5,000 signatures by noon – but nothing was turned in.
Kansas’ election rules are strict and Kanye will no longer be able to run on the ballot. He will only receive votes in Kansas if residents write him in.
Over the weekend, Kanye’s campaign focused much of their energy on the Buckeye state.
To register for the ballot in Ohio, Kanye will need to amass 5,000 valid signatures by 5pm this Wednesday.
TMZ reports that around 90 people are currently canvasing in Ohio for signatures.
Kanye has reportedly hired the company, Let the Voters Decide, to help collect the needed signatures in Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas.
Securing Ohio’s ballot would be a monumental victory for Kanye since the swing state has remained a consistent indicator of who will become President of the United States.
President Trump clinched Ohio for the 2016 election by fewer than 5,000 votes.
Kanye West (pictured) is trying secure 5,000 signatures to appear on the presidential ballot in Ohio, which is a key swing state that could affect the upcoming election
Ohio has 16 electoral votes that account for the seventh most in the United States.
Kanye has already made some ground last month after he paid $35,000 to qualify for the presidential ballot in Oklahoma.
He was able to do so after he officially filled out the Form 2: Statement of Candidacy form, shows he raised or spent more than $5,000 in campaign activity.
Kanye also completed first FEC form required to become a presidential candidate, the Statement of Organization, and will reportedly be running under the ‘Birthday Party.’
The State Election Board in Oklahoma received a notarized document on July 15 from Kanye’s campaign declaring his candidacy for president as an independent.
Oklahoma, which has a population of nearly 4 million people amounting to seven Electoral College votes, is very Republican and went 65.3 per cent for Donald Trump in 2016.
West filed a document to run for an independent candidate in the deep-red state of Oklahoma, which has 7 Electoral College votes, on Wednesday. At the top of the paperwork he wrote ‘DONDA’s PLACE’ in a tribute to his mother
Less than 29 per cent voted for Hillary Clinton and nearly 6 per cent went for Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.
His campaign has already filed the required petitions to appear on the ballot in his Illinois, Missouri and New Jersey, but an issue regarding invalid signatures could dent plans.
In Illinois, the Intelligencer reports that Kanye’s campaign barely amassed the 2,500 signatures required after desperate volunteers canvassed in a supermarket parking lots next to the Board of Elections building with just hours to spare.
But the validity of those signatures were quickly called into question and was hit with three separate objections over their legitimacy.
One objector, Sean Tenner, claimed to find only 1,000 valid signatures among the approximately 3,200 submitted.
Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian-West, have had a tumultuous month that culminated into a ‘crisis talk’ in Cody, Wyoming
Alvin Boutte, the CEO of Bronzeville Academy Charter School in Chicago, told Chicago Sun Times that most of the signatures on Kanye’s ballot don’t match signatures on the state’s voter rolls.
Boutte also claimed that the addresses listed on Kanye’s forms don’t align with state records either. The objection was filed by attorney Pericles Abbasi on Boutte’s behalf
‘We’ve already seen what happens when people who are mentally unfit are in office,’ said Boutte, referring to President Trump.
‘So I thought it was important to challenge someone who most of us see as mentally unfit right now.’
Kanye West has been open about his struggles with bipolar disorder. Last week, Kim penned a letter on Instagram that addressed her husband’s mental health.
‘Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behavior know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor.,’ she said.
‘I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder.
‘Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.’
‘Complicated and painful’: Kim took to Instagram on Wednesday morning following West’s late night Twitter meltdown, saying she feels ‘powerless’ amid his struggle with bi-polar disorder
Making her voice heard: Kim signed off the three page note with ‘Kim Kardashian West’
In New Jersey, he faced similar accusations of forged signatures by election law attorney Scott Salmon.
Salmon referred to the signature’s submitted by the rapper’s campaign as the ‘most egregious’ case of fraud he’s encountered and they were ‘almost to a degree, insulting.’
Kanye had secured 1,237 signatures in the Garden State, but Salmon determined that around 700 of them were questionable. He needed 800 for the ballot.
Additionally, Kanye has not observed New Jersey law and did not released the names of the canvassers involved.
And, according to Salmon, half of the electors Kanye nominated were not eligible to vote in New Jersey.
One elector on the list was Victory Boyd, an R&B singer with close ties to Kanye and whose father, John Boyd, acted as the rapper’s ‘spiritual adviser’ at the South Carolina presidential rally.
‘These individuals are not ‘qualified voters’ who could properly sign Mr. West’s petition and their endorsements are fatally defective,’ wrote Salmon in a letter against the petition, New Jersey Globe reports.
‘The burden is on me to prove that Kanye’s petition is deficient. I’m not going to tweet out all my legal arguments right now, but the gist of what will happen is that we’ll have a screen share of the petition side-by-side with the Statewide Voter Registration System,
The court hearing for the case will reportedly happen on Tuesday of this week.
‘If everything matches, great. I don’t want people’s signatures getting bounced if they’re legitimate,’ wrote Salmon. ‘If things don’t line up, the judge will make a call on whether to exclude the voter
In Missouri, presidential candidates must submit 10,000 signatures. A state spokesperson told People that election officials began reviewing the signatures last week.
West’s FEC filing shows funds for his campaign will go through First Bank of Wyoming – an unsurprising move as the Chicago native, who lives in California with his pop culture icon wife Kim Kardashian West and their four children, has expressed his desire to move there.
He first announced his formal intent to run for President of the United States with a tweet on the Fourth of July.
‘We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION’ West wrote.
West announced July 4 that he is running for president in November, but did not fill out or file any FEC paperwork until Wednesday
Kanye has mentioned his interest in the presidency in previous years, but his latest declaration has been met with this time with action.
Just two days ago, Kanye broke his silence on Twitter to insist that his tears over abortion at his presidential rally were not a meltdown, and voiced ‘concern for the world that feels you shouldn’t cry about this.’
He added backlash over his comments were an attempt to ‘Distract, Discredit, Dismiss To Destroy.’
Kanye wrote: ‘I cried at the thought of aborting my first born and everyone was so concerned about me. I’m concerned for the world that feels you shouldn’t cry about this subject.’
In a second tweet, Kanye added: There is a tactic of 4 D’s: Distract, Discredit, Dismiss To Destroy.
Embattled rapper Kanye West broke his silence on Twitter with two messages on Thursday
‘I am quite alright Take a second and think about what is being projected here.’
In one tweet, he appeared lay out the ‘four D’s’ and urged his followers to ‘take a second and think about what is being projected here
In another tweet on Friday, Kanye shared an article that appeared to further disparage planned parenthood after he was critical of the organization in recent weeks
In his third tweet, he shared an article from the New York Post about the Planned Parenthood of Greater New York removing Margaret Sanger’s name from a Lower Manhattan clinic.
Sanger,’ who created organizations that grew into Planned Parenthood, will have her name removed because of her connection to ‘eugenics.
A fourth tweet read: ‘Over 22,500,000 black babies have been aborted over the past 50 years.’
Last week, Kanye and Kim were spotted having an emotional conversation, after his wife flew to Cody, Wyoming, for crisis talks.
It is the first time that the married couple has been pictured together since before his campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, where he officially launched his unlikely bid for presidency.
The pair – who share children North, seven; Saint, four; Chicago, two; and Psalm, one – were seen having what appears to be crisis talks in his car after leaving a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant near his $14 million ranch.
However, Kanye apologized to his wife in a tweet last week, amid reports that he went to hospital to be treated for anxiety.
The rapper tweeted: ‘I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me.to [sic] Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.’
Prior to his meltdown on Twitter, Kanye sparked concern during a rambling and chaotic speech at his first presidential rally at North Charleston’s Exquis Event Center in South Carolina.
He shockingly revealed that he and his wife Kim had considered aborting their daughter North, who is now seven, before he got a ‘message from God’.
His unscripted speech, which came two weeks after he announced his unlikely bid for president, is said to have left his wife and her family upset and alarmed.