As Americans, we are not always well informed of our rights, the basics of voting, or even the power of a quick search google. In this case, some of us are lacking in the understanding of how a presidential election works. But, fear not, this article is here to guide you through it.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden aren’t the only people running for president. On some ballots, third-party candidates such a Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, independent Brock Pierce and, yes, rapper Kanye West, who’s running under his own party called the Birthday Party, will be listed below the major party candidates. It is your right to fill in this ballot with whoever you wish to elect as president, this is called the Popular Vote (the votes casted by the general public). Then, once those votes are tallied up, whichever candidate received at least 51% of those votes is then passed off to the Electoral College. The political party of the winning candidate in each state sends its preselected electors to the state capital to vote. This is the Electoral College, and its members elect the president and vice president of the United States. If you are still confused this article via Living Facts should clarify things a bit more.
I’ve provided some background because viral posts on social media claim some of the candidates i’ve mentioned are performing stronger than what the numbers actually reflect. The evening of Oct. 13, West tweeted a screenshot from the website of LEX 18 News, a local Kentucky news outlet. The top of the page read “President Kentucky results: 100% of precincts reporting” which appeared to show the rapper, along with two other third-party candidates, far outperforming Biden and Trump.
The 43-year-old rap and pop music icon then tweeted a video captioned, “GET THE WEST WING READY !!! … this is how I felt when I saw the Kentucky pole result.”
Consequently, this sent everyone on social media on a tangent. But, it is very important to note that the numbers in the picture aren’t real. After West shared the image, Lex 18 News’ Twitter explained that the screenshot showed test results from a cached web link used during the state’s June primary election to post Associated Press election results.
“The results shown were not valid,” Lex 18’s tweet read. “They were simply part of a test. We regret the discovery of the cached web link and have removed the data from that page.” Twitter later marked the images Kanye shared as “manipulated media.”
West will be on the ballot in at least 10 states this fall, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
