The Kansas Supreme Court today sent to a lower court a lawsuit that tries to force Democrats to name a ballot replacement for Chad Taylor in the U.S. Senate race.
The Supreme Court ordered the case now will go to the Shawnee County District Court.
A Kansas City, Kan., Democrat, David Orel, had filed suit to force Democrats to put a name on the ballot after Taylor’s withdrawal from the race. Orel’s son works for Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s campaign, according to media sources.
Orel’s suit had asked the Supreme Court to make the ruling as a deadline was nearing on sending ballots out to overseas voters, including members of the military.
The Supreme Court said while it heard the Taylor case, there was a difference in the two cases.
“Transfer is appropriate because Orel’s pleadings do not contain sworn evidence necessary to enable this court to make any of a myriad of legal determinations, including, but not limited to, ripeness, the nature of the parties, the existence of standing, and the propriety or adequacy of the mandamus relief requested. By contrast, in Taylor v. Kobach, Case No. 112, 431, uncontroverted written communications were attached as exhibits to a sworn affidavit submitted with a pleading. Two exhibits enabled our statutory interpretation, a purely legal determination.”
The timelines mentioned in this decision were that Orel’s petition stated the secretary of state’s office had originally planned to send out the overseas ballots on Sept. 20, but on Sept. 22 an amended petition stated the deadline had been extended.
There was no speculation in the court opinion on whether it is already too late to add a name to the ballot.
If it is too late, the main contest in the U.S. Senate race is expected to be between incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican, vs. Greg Orman, an independent. Libertarian candidate Randall Batson also is on the ballot. Some political observers believe that if Taylor had stayed in the race, a three-way split of the vote would have been to Roberts’ advantage.
The Orel petition for a writ of mandamus is case No. 112, 487.
The decision is online at http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/SupCt/2014/20140923/112487.pdf