If you were going to nitpick and say the Democratic candidate can’t withdraw because he didn’t certify that he’d be unable to serve, then why didn’t you also declare Pat Roberts ineligible to run because he doesn’t live in Kansas?
This was a partisan decision through and through and a mockery of the sacred trust of Kobach’s office, which exists primarily to keep the election process fair. Instead, Kobach goes down in history with the likes of Katherine Harris. Hopefully his career ends here. Harris’ went on an extra act too long.
It does seem to say that an inability to serve must be alleged. The problem is that there have been general allegations that the Secretary of State’s office has not required such in the past. I don’t know if that is true. I don’t know if it has ever happened under Kobach.
I would think such events are rare enough that precedent in the same jurisdiction is unlikely. But in a different jurisdiction, AFAIR, in the Torricelli-Lautenberg thing, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that deadlines for ballot changes don’t matter if Democrats really want to change the ballot.
According to Taylor, he showed the text of his withdrawal letter to the Secretary of State’s office before he submitted it and they said it would work. He then signed and officially submitted it. Kobach then rejected the letter and said it was not in compliance.
From this, it’s not clear that the written request for withdrawal must include the declaration of inability to serve. The text seems to allow a nominee to make a declaration of inability and then submit a separate written request for withdrawal without including a statement of inability in it.
To be honest with you Bricker, I don’t know the law, but this was my takeaway after listening to Morning Joe today.
Joe seemed to be of the opinion that an amendment would be an easy fix and would likely be offered if the situation were thought to be of benefit to the incumbent. Since Joe is an ex-congressman and a current republican, I decided to trust his opinion.
More specifically, the news report Taylor as saying he showed the letter to a guy in the SOS’s office named Brad Bryant. Bryant is a lawyer, and longtime head of the elections division in the office. He predates Kobach by at least a couple administrations, so Bryant would know better than anybody how it had been done in the past. Bryant is non-political, and really knows election law. The problem is that Kobach denies that Bryant told Taylor the letter was adequate.
So, they are going to draft him? If he wins, can they force him to take office? Maybe he should protest by burning his voter registration card! Hell, no, I won’t go! Or, I will go, just not go there!
If I were SOS, absent precedent to the contrary, I’d require it to be in the letter since it inability to serve seems to be the only grounds for withdrawal. But so far, Taylor’s made no declaration of inability of any sort.
Taylor was never a strong candidate. At the beginning of this election cycle, Roberts was considered invincible, and Tayor agree to run just so there’s be a Democrat on the ballot. But during the Republican primary, Roberts faced a fierce Tea-Party opponent named Wolf. Wolf did real damage to Roberts, and Wolf might have even won except that he comes across as crazy.
Exactly. There’s even speculation that if Orman, the independent, were to win, it would keep the Senate in Democrat control since Orman would presumably caucus with the Democrats.