Kansas Supreme Court orders ballot case to go to Shawnee County District Court

The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered that a case brought by a registered Democrat against the Kansas Democratic Party be transferred to the district court of Shawnee County.

David Orel, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., filed a petition with the court last week to compel Democrats to appoint a replacement for Chad Taylor in the U.S. Senate race. The race has gained national attention and could prove critical in determining which party wins control of the Senate.

Orel, whose son works on Gov. Sam Brownback’s campaign, invoked a statute that says when a vacancy on the ballot occurs after the primary, the party “shall” appoint a replacement.

The case comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week that Taylor’s name be taken off the ballot after he had submitted a withdrawal letter to the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office.

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss wrote in the order that, unlike the case Taylor brought against Secretary of State Kris Kobach to remove his name, Orel’s suit does “not contain sworn evidence necessary to enable this court to make a myriad of legal determinations, including, but not limited to, ripeness, the nature of parties, the existence of standing.”

Nuss said that moving the case to the district court would allow fact finding to take place.

Orel’s petition states that he wants to vote for a Democrat in the U.S. Senate race and that if the party does not field a candidate, he will be robbed of his right to do so.

Kobach, a Republican, instructed county election officials to send out overseas ballots last week with a disclaimer that new ballots may be sent depending on how Orel’s case turns out. Kobach has repeatedly said Democrats must appoint a replacement for Taylor. He told counties to hold off on printing the rest of the general election ballots.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert from the University of California at Irvine, said the high court’s decision to kick the case down to a lower court likely means that ballots will have to be printed before there can be a definitive ruling in the case.

“The effect of this order is to delay things beyond the point at which it would make sense for Democrats to put a name on the ballot. That is, by the time the issue would get back to the Supreme Court, ballots may have been printed,” Hasen wrote in an analysis. “Democrats had been hoping to run out the clock in this case, and this is a big order helping that cause.”

The lack of a Democrat on the ballot in the Senate race has been seen by many political analysts as a boon to independent candidate Greg Orman against Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts.

This story was originally published September 23, 2014 at 10:16 AM with the headline "Kansas Supreme Court orders ballot case to go to Shawnee County District Court."