Obscure panel of Republicans to decide Orman’s fate after signatures challenged

A typically obscure panel of three Republican officials will wield total control Thursday over whether to end independent Greg Orman’s candidacy for Kansas governor.

By state law, its decisions are final. Absent a court challenge, there are no appeals.

Several high-profile actions this year and in the past by the panel – called the State Objections Board – have raised questions about whether the Kansas system works well. Some lawmakers are skeptical or simply don’t believe the partisan panel can make impartial decisions.

“I have seen instance after instance of the board ruling in a partisan fashion” over the years, said Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat.

Thursday’s meeting to hear a challenge to Orman’s candidacy will be the board’s most consequential so far this year.

A ruling that ends Orman’s bid would shake up the governor’s race and set up a largely two-way battle between Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly and Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach – a match up that many Democrats believe would give them a better shot of winning the governor’s office.

Kobach himself sits on the board, along with Lt. Gov. Tracey Mann and Attorney General Derek Schmidt. State law dictates those officeholders serve on the board, but they can send others in their place.

“I believe the system has worked well based on my eight years of experience on it,” Kobach said.

Kobach said Wednesday he will recuse himself from the meeting. He plans to send in his place longtime deputy Eric Rucker, who has donated to Kobach’s campaign.

Kobach previously named Rucker, an assistant secretary of state and staunch Republican, to carry out his election duties after he recused himself from overseeing vote counting in the razor-thin GOP primary race between Kobach and Gov. Jeff Colyer.

The objections board will meet Thursday morning in a Topeka auditorium – a sign of significant public interest. Some previous meetings have been held in a small conference room in the secretary of state’s office.

In June, the board overruled a challenge to Michael Capps, a Kansas House candidate from Wichita who Democrats said wasn’t eligible to run for the seat because he didn’t live in the district. It also ended the attorney general candidacy of Vermin Supreme, a political performance artist.

And it said U.S. Rep. Ron Estes could appear on the Republican primary ballot as “Rep. Ron Estes” after another Ron Estes filed to run against him.

In the past, the board has thrown out an objection that U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts doesn’t reside in Kansas. In 2012, the board also heard an objection to President Barack Obama’s candidacy that challenged his citizenship. The objection was withdrawn before the board ruled.

Rep. Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat and attorney who led the challenge against Capps, said one of his biggest concerns with the board isn’t who sits on the board, but the board’s process, which he called arbitrary.

Miller said the board didn’t adopt rules until it met and then contradicted itself on whether he could call witnesses.

“To have due process, to have a fair hearing, you have to have the ability to call witnesses and present testimony under oath. Otherwise, people can make up any story and you walk out with them choosing whether or not they want to swallow the story,” Miller said.

Kobach defended the objections board system in an interview. He said the members of the board must answer to voters for their decisions.

“The three members are politically accountable. So if one of them were to make a decision that seemed unfair or partisan in nature or otherwise objectionable, that person can be held accountable by the voters,” Kobach said.

Kobach also said the board typically follows past precedent in its making decisions. The board acts “very carefully,” he said.

“We haven’t seen the objections board bouncing back and forth on the same question for partisan reasons. On the contrary, the board has a very strong record of treating like cases the same way,” Kobach said.

Miller downplayed the idea that voters would hold officials accountable for their decisions on the board. He said “99.9 percent” of people forget the decisions made by the board the day after they’re made.

Sen. Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Republican who sits on the Senate’s Ethics and Elections committee, said lawmakers should take a look at the objections board system.

Sykes said she had thought the board would have made different decisions during their June decision based on Kansas law.

She hinted the system would benefit from a change.

“I think different perspectives always result in the best policy,” Sykes said.

The challenge against Orman, filed by Democratic attorney Will Lawrence, seeks to invalidate more than 6,000 signatures put forward by Orman in his petition to gain a spot on the ballot. Lawrence argues that several counties missed a legal deadline to validate signatures so those signatures should not count.

Lawrence, who is chief of staff to Senate Democratic leader Anthony Hensley, a close Kelly ally, also has raised concerns that some of Orman’s signatures have been improperly notarized and that individuals convicted of felonies may have gathered some signatures as well.

Orman’s campaign predicted Orman and running mate John Doll would remain on the ballot at the end of the objections board hearing.

“We are confident that each member of the Board will conduct themselves fairly in doing their statutory duty,” Orman campaign manager Tim Phillips said in a statement.

“We are also confident that upon review, the Board will find that objections to the certification of sufficient valid petition signatures will be denied, and that Greg Orman and John Doll will be able to provide real choice and relief to Kansans trapped by the broken two party system.”

Kelly campaign spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw would not comment other than to say the campaign is confident of victory in November regardless of the outcome of the objection.

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 4:22 PM.