The Kansas Supreme Court will hear Chad Taylor’s case against Secretary of State Kris Kobach, after rejecting on Thursday a petition from Kobach’s attorney to move the case to a district court. The court will hear oral arguments in Taylor v. Kobach on Tuesday in order to decide whether Taylor will remain on the November ballot for U.S. Senate. Ballots must be ready to be mailed overseas to absentee voters by Sept. 20. Taylor, the Democratic nominee, attempted to withdraw from the race last week, a move that many political analysts said would give a boost to independent candidate Greg Orman against U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, the three-term Republican incumbent. Kobach ruled that Taylor would remain on the ballot for failing to declare himself incapable of serving if elected, as required by Kansas statute.
Kobach accused Taylor, the district attorney of Shawnee County, of intentionally not including a declaration in his letter. “He’s an attorney and knows what a declaration is. For some reason he didn’t want to make that declaration. And I don’t want to speculate about what his reason was, but I think he knew perfectly well that he was not following the statute and he probably hoped he could get away with it,” Kobach said.
Taylor filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to remove himself from the ballot on Tuesday. Kobach’s attorney sought to move the case to a district court to allow fact-finding to take place.
Chief Justice Lawton Nuss wrote in a court order Thursday that additional fact-finding would not be needed in the case, as the court had the pieces of evidence necessary to proceed.
Full Article: Kansas Supreme Court will hear Chad Taylor v. Kris Kobach on Senate ballot issue | The Wichita Eagle.