Photo by Stephen KorandaThe Kansas Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow (TUE) on whether Democrat Chad Taylor should be removed from the ballot for a U.S. Senate seat.
Taylor dropped out of the Senate race recently and he’s trying to get his name removed. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says Taylor’s name should stay on the ballot.
University of Kansas Political Science Professor Burdett Loomis calls the situation “extraordinarily unusual.” He can’t remember a legal battle with a high-profile candidate trying to be removed from the ballot in Kansas. Loomis says that means the situation is headed into uncharted waters.
“And I think you can see that as it moves forward that nobody really knows exactly what to do here. There's no clear body of statutory law and there's no body of case law, at least in recent years,” says Loomis.
Taylor filed paperwork to remove his name, but Kobach says Taylor’s paperwork doesn’t comply with state law and he’s refusing to remove Taylor’s name from the ballot.
When Taylor dropped out, that left Republican Pat Roberts, independent Greg Orman and Libertarian Randall Batson in the race for the U.S. Senate seat.