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stated on October 15, 2020 in an Instagram post:

Says Kanye West got 40,000 votes in the presidential election in Kentucky.

False
By Ciara O'Rourke
October 16, 2020

The Kanye West Wing? No. Those Kentucky election tallies aren’t real.

If your time is short

  • Kanye West shared mock election results that showed him getting 19% of the vote in the presidential election in Kentucky, but the numbers aren’t real.
 
See the sources for this fact-check

Kanye West is on the Kentucky ballot as an independent candidate for president but election results showing him leading Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by more than 10,000 votes are not real. 

But a video of the rapper that’s being shared on social media gives a different impression. 

“19%, 40,000 votes,” West says in the video. “Kentucky. Get the West Wing ready! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

The post also shows an image of what’s described as “President Kentucky results” with “100% of precincts reporting.” It shows West with 40,781 votes, or 19%, and Biden with only 14%.

“Kanye reacts to getting 40k votes,” the post says. 

It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

West tweeted the image showing him with 19% of the Kentucky vote on Oct. 13. It was a screenshot of an NBC News affiliate’s website — lex18.com. But the Kentucky station said that the results showed mock numbers used as part of the Associated Press’ preparation to post election results. 

“Someone discovered a cached web link that we used during June’s primary election to post Associated Press election results,” LEX 18 News tweeted on Oct. 13. “The old link was still populating current AP data and showed test results, which is part of the preparation the AP does in advance of elections.” 

The results aren’t valid, LEX 18 News said. “They were simply part of a test. We regret the discovery of the cached web link and have removed the data from that page. We apologize for any confusion.” 

Early voting is underway in Kentucky but the State Board of Elections has not yet posted any results.

We rate this claim False.

 
Our Sources

Instagram post, Oct. 15, 2020

WDRB.com, Kanye West officially on Kentucky ballot, Sept. 28, 2020

Kanye West tweet, Oct. 13, 2020

LEX 18 News tweet, Oct. 13, 2020

Kentucky 2020 election results, visited Oct. 16, 2020

 

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