Is Kanye West’s Presidential Bid Over Before It Really Started?

He may still be able to appear on the ballot in a few states this November for the Presidential election, but following his failure to get there in enough of them, Kanye West’s bid to take over from Donald Trump is essentially all but over.

Following the rapper’s inability to get on the ballot in Missouri, the latest state where he either failed to file paperwork on time, or had his ballot withdrawn, dismissed or rejected. In recent weeks, other states where that occurred included his home state of Illinois, as well as Wisconsin, New Jersey, Montana and Ohio.

Now, with his name currently only on the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont, and only eight other states where he can possibly still get his name there, he can’t actually win the Presidency, which requires a minimum of 270 electoral votes. He currently could only win a maximum of 64 votes if he was declared the winner in the states he is on the ballot. If his paperwork is approved in Iowa and Virginia, the total could climb to a hypothetical 83, and if he doesn’t miss deadlines or get rejected in North Dakota, Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, the max total votes he would be able to get would be 119.

CNN reports that while he can’t win the Presidency, he can still threaten to upend things for either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, especially since there have been continued questions about whether or not his bid and the support it has received from Republican figures is a sign that the Republicans are trying to use him and his celebrity to siphon Black support from Biden. The Trump campaign has denied those claims.

Based on current data for where states seem to be leaning when it comes to the election, West’s being on the ballot actually could be more of a deterrent to the President's reelection instead. Of the nine states where he will definitely be on the ballot, if he won each one, he would only be siphoning 22 votes from Biden, but 42 from Trump. When Iowa and Virginia are added to the mix, he could take a total of 35 votes from the Democrats and 48 from the Republicans. If his name appears on all the states where he can still file and he wins every single one his name appears on the ballot, in, he still takes the majority of votes from Trump, with a grand total of 71, whereas he would only be taking 54 from Biden.

As things stand, with states that are expected to definitively go blue, Joe Biden is projected to already have a grand total of 182 votes, with West having the potential to grab seven of them, but currently only able to take a maximum of three. With states that are expected to definitively go red, Donald Trump is projected to have just 64 votes, with West potentially able to grab 53, but currently standing with a chance at 36 of them.

When states that are currently projected as likely blue or leaning in that direction are factored in, Biden has an additional 93 total votes, for a winning total of 275, though west could potentially snatch up to 36 of them, and currently has a chance at 19. With likely/leaning red states factored in, Trump has a chance at an additional 96 votes, for a grand total of 160. West could take up to 12 of those, and currently has the ability to grab 6.