Attorneys for entertainment mogul Kanye West have filed an appeal with the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn Richmond Circuit Court Judge Joi J. Taylor’s ruling from last week that removed West from Virginia’s ballots for November’s election.
A spokesperson for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring reported in an email to Virginia news media that West has hired two new lawyers with BakerHostetler, Trevor Stanley and Mark Braden, for his appeal.
Stanley and Braden represented the Republican Party of Virginia when it opposed suspending the witness requirement for the June primaries earlier this spring.
Taylor, in granting a temporary injunction in a suit that sought to have West removed from the Virginia presidential ballot, found that elector oaths submitted on behalf of West “were obtained by improper, fraudulent and/or misleading means, or are otherwise invalid because of notarial violations and misconduct, and, therefore, do not count toward the statutorily required minimum to qualify the petition.”
West’s attorneys have filed a motion for expedited consideration, with the Virginia Department of Elections itching to print absentee ballots in time to get them in the mail to voters by a Sept. 19 deadline.