New York Times: If Kanye West Is Running for President, So Is Your Mom

This article is sort of, but not really, about Kanye West, who may or may not be running for president.

In a normal year, we would not be writing about a celebrity’s unconfirmed candidacy for an office for which he is too late to get on the ballot in some states. We don’t even know if the documents filed with the Federal Election Commission under his name this week are actually from him, because the F.E.C. doesn’t verify the legitimacy of the information in such filings. …

If you’ve spent the past couple of weeks blissfully unaware of the Schrödinger’s cat-like Kanye campaign, we’ll catch you up quickly. Earlier this month, Mr. West, the rapper, designer and entrepreneur, said he was renouncing his past support for President Trump and running for president himself. Less than two weeks later, an adviser said he wasn’t running after all.

Then Mr. West, or at least someone purporting to represent him, filed two forms with the F.E.C.: a statement of organization on Wednesday, and a statement of candidacy on Thursday. An F.E.C. spokesman confirmed that the agency had received the filings. …

Pretty much anyone can file a statement of organization or candidacy. The forms are very simple, requiring no legal or political expertise to complete. And the F.E.C.’s job is to enforce campaign finance laws, so it has no reason to vet or verify candidates who aren’t raising or spending money.

Just to be sure, though, we asked a couple of campaign law experts how much Mr. West’s filings meant.

“Very little,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause.

Candidates are not required to register with the F.E.C. unless they have raised or spent more than $5,000, but “there is nothing that prohibits someone who hasn’t raised or spent that amount of money from filing,” Mr. Ryan said. “That’s why you see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of not serious candidates, and to some extent completely fake or joke candidates.” …

“Filing these two forms with the Federal Election Commission are really the two easiest parts of running for president,” Mr. Ryan said. “Every state has its own rules for what it takes to have your name on the ballot, their own deadlines, their own requirements. That’s the hard part — and then actually running a campaign.”