TMZ says Kanye West was willing to do whatever it took to get his name on the ballot in the state of Illinois. In fact, the outlet says he forked out quite a bit of money to make it happen.
Insiders who spoke with TMZ claimed Kanye’s campaign team hired another organization, Let The Voters Decide, which collected 2,500 signatures for Kanye to make it on to the ballot in his home state.
The deadline to make the ballot was at 5:00 pm, Monday, and the rapper managed to meet it. Reportedly, the artist’s third-party group went to the streets right away and collected 2,500 signatures in under 24 hours.
According to reports, Kanye paid $10-$12 per signature, and they managed to get 3,178 signatures. Kenny Mister, one of the individuals who worked with the company, says he was contacted on Sunday to help get Kanye onto the ballot.
When he was offered the job, he was already in the city of Detroit, however, he quickly packed his bags and shipped off to Springfield, Illinois, on Monday. He worked for 3 hours and managed to get 56 signatures for $10 each.
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According to Kenny, he went door to door asking people if they supported Kanye’s right to get on the ballet, which most did. They were told they didn’t have to necessarily vote for him.
Sources say the amount Kanye was willing to pay to get the signatures was a lot more than the usual amount. In fact, it was around 10 times the regular sum. Rickey Hendon, a former Illinois State Senator says the standard rate is usually around $1 – $3.
These days, Rickey is a campaign advisor and manager, and he says Kanye’s team contacted him just a few days before they spoke with Let The Voters Decide. Rickey says he didn’t want to work with him, but never explained why.
Thus far, it’s not clear if Kanye’s efforts will matter, considering he already failed to meet the deadline in other states. More importantly, it was also reported that he recently went to the hospital after suffering from anxiety.