The latest on Kanye West’s effort to get on the Virginia ballot

With in-person voting starting on Friday, the Kanye West ballot-access story still somehow has legs.

The office of Attorney General Mark Herring sent a note to media outlets Wednesday noting that the AG has filed a brief opposing Kanye West’s petition for an appeal.

A quick sum of the brief: “Appellants are simply too late and the petition for appeal should be denied.”

Herring, in the brief, also highlighted that “(a)ll 133 of the Commonwealth’s localities have now started the ballot production process and – as appellants are well-aware – granting appellants their requested relief would wreak havoc on Virginia’s election. Appellants’ delay and the prejudice to the Commonwealth and its voters are fatal to this appeal.”

The brief concludes by laying out the detrimental effects an appeal would have on the ballot printing process and the election as a whole: “Appellants demand that Virginia’s election officials do the impossible: print, assemble, and mail hundreds of thousands of ballots in a single day. Should this Court grant appellants the relief they seek, election officials will be placed in a position where they will be unable to both comply with this Court’s order and meet federal and state statutory deadlines. As a result, military voters would be denied rights afforded to them by federal law and scores of other people could be disenfranchised. Such relief would inject chaos and uncertainty into an already challenging election season.”

Story by Chris Graham