Kanye West claims he's running for president again. Don't believe him until he files the paperwork.

• It's easy to formally declare a run for president — all it takes is filling out two pages of paperwork.
• It's so easy that hundreds of fake candidates populate the FEC's database, including Captain Cannabis and Kurt Cobain.

Ye, the artist best known as Kanye West, has had a tumultuous fall where he saw billion-dollar fashion deals collapse after he repeatedly made anti-semitic remarks.

Despite once being among the most popular and influential artists in the world, Ye has a disapproval rating of 59% among American adults, per a 2022 Morning Consult poll, and a paltry 8% "very favorable"rating.

Earlier this week, Ye said he was running for president again, and on Tuesday night, he claimed that he had asked former President Donald Trump to be his running mate in 2024.

Despite the announcements, Kanye West has yet to file the most basic of paperwork required to become a federal candidate.

All it takes to formally declare a run for office is a two-page "Statement of Candidacy" form. According to the FEC, the paperwork must be filed after receiving or making campaign purchases of $5,000 or more, but can also be filed any time before the candidate raises money.

Any American citizen can run for presidential office, leading hundreds of crackpots and longshots to fill the Federal Election Commission's databases with names like Earl for President, Princess For President, Captain Cannabis, Kurt Cobain, and "SpungeBob SquarePants."

West is no stranger to running for office and filling out the required paperwork: He filed the correct forms to run for the 2020 presidential election when he received just 60,000 votes altogether after only being placed on the ballot in 12 states, and eventually had his campaign coffers stripped of money by thieves.

In 2022 he filed an amended version of the 2020 statement of organization that swapped in a new treasurer sometime after the fraud situation. The Daily Beast also reported that West's 2020 supposedly independent campaign was secretly funded by GOP elites.

As it stands, Captain Cannabis currently has more legitimacy as a candidate than the rapper, and that won't change until West is able to actually bring in money into his campaign, through a personal loan made to his campaign or another fundraising stream.