“Lawyers for Kanye West’s presidential campaign are fighting to get the rapper on the ballot in the key swing state of Wisconsin, arguing in filing to state election regulators late Monday that challenges to his candidacy are an effort by Democrats to silence his voice in the race. West’s petition to join the ballot in Wisconsin was dropped off last week by Lane Ruhland, a lawyer who has served as general counsel of the state’s Republican Party and who represented the Trump campaign in court in July” reports the Washington Post.

“The Washington Post has reported that Republican operatives, some of whom have publicly backed Trump, have worked to get West on the ballot in at least five states, raising fears that the effort is intended to siphon votes from Biden and boost Trump’s chances. In Wisconsin, where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes, West filed a petition with 2,422 signatures to get on the ballot as an independent candidate representing the Birthday Party. State law requires between 2,000 and 4,000 valid signatures. But two challenges were filed last week to the petition. They argued the petition should be disqualified because, among other things, it was filed just after the 5 p.m. deadline on Aug. 4. The challenges also included sworn affidavits from people who signed the West petition saying they had been misled about its purpose by people collecting signatures for the document. In a 22-page response filed by Michael C. Curran, an attorney based in Spring Green, Wis., West’s campaign argued that under state law, nomination papers are presumed valid and argued that the challenges did not meet the state’s high bar for disqualification. In particular, the campaign argued that while some observers said West’s petition had been filed after 5 p.m., it was filed before 5:01 p.m. — still valid under state law. And they said the voters who said they were misled into signing might simply be experiencing ‘buyer’s remorse,’ regretting their decision to sign only after they were ‘called and harassed by Democratic party operatives.'”