BREAKING: Kansas Senate Ballots Will Be Sent Out Without Dem Nom

[cal04]

In an apparent reversal, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's office is instructing election officials in the state to send out overseas military ballots without Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor or any other Democratic Senate candidate listed.

Kobach spokeswoman Samantha Poetter confirmed to TPM that the ballots would be sent out by Saturday, the deadline under state and federal law.

"Our ballots are going out without Chad Taylor (or any Democratic candidate) for U.S. Senate," Poetter said. "They've been ordered to send them out as soon as possible."

(snip)

"The list does NOT contain the name of a Democratic nominee for United States Senate," the order said. "There are three candidates, Randall Batson, Libertarian, Greg Orman, independent, Pat Roberts, Republican."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kansas-senate-race-ballots

more at link

Kobach Hasn't Gotten Federal Approval For Latest Kansas Senate Ploy

UPDATE: 4:05 p.m. In an unexpected twist, Kobach's office is ordering election officials to send out overseas military ballots without a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. His office would not say, however, what would happen next if the state Democratic Party eventually nominated a new candidate, as Kobach has said they should.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/kobach-move-act-waiver-kansas-senate-race

[Agschmid]

1. Kick, wow.

[spanone]

2. more proof of a completely broken democracy

[Fred Sanders]

4. Why so? In the end it was the courts that righted the wrong.

[randome]

5. In this case, democracy (the judicial branch) won out over a party hack.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[Fred Sanders]

3. It was not a reversal, Kobach had his temper tantrum until today when his lawyers told him to

STFU, do you really want to take another beating in the state Supreme Court so soon?

And also Fox News refused him airtime and no tender rehab.

No way around the state and federal law deadlines, deadlines Kobach asserted were unmovable in his own losing argument to not get the Supreme Court involved, his initial legal move that was struck down by the SC of Kansas.

Third time shellacking he decided not to take...

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

6. Lying about the deadline date (to the Supreme Court), Lying about extending the date...

Kobach seems to have both a Supreme Court contempt problem and a general truth-telling problem.

Should make for some great TV spots between now and November 4.

[Fred Sanders]

9. That is the best part...oh, what a web we weave....

[LiberalAndProud]

7. I hate to say I told you so, but ...

No I don't.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014898571#post34


ETA:

[deminks]

8. Sweet, part deux. nt

[Control-Z]

10. Who is this Randall Batson, Libertarian?

Is he a last minute attempt to keep the ticket split 3 ways?

[LiberalAndProud]

11. He's been around since June, at least.

http://ksn.com/2014/06/25/randall-batson-l-u-s-senate/

[LiberalAndProud]

12. Kick.

[drm604]

13. No Democratic candidate?

People in this thread seem happy about this. Am I missing something?

[TexasTowelie]

14. If a Democrat remained in the race, then the incumbent Roberts was favored to win

with the vote split between the Independent and the Democrat. With the Democrat out of the race, the Independent has about a 10 point lead in the polls. This would knock a Republican out of the Senate and might keep them from capturing control of the Senate after the election. The Independent has not indicated which party he would caucus with, but people generally believe that he is willing to caucus with the Democrats similar to Bernie Sanders.

[Bryce Butler]

15. Nate Silver estimates a 75% chance that Orman...

will caucus with the Democrats.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/upheaval-in-the-kansas-senate-race-is-making-our-chart-kinky/

[drm604]

17. If the independent is so friendly to Democrats

then why was he running as a spoiler?

[Hippo_Tron]

18. Kansas is a one party state, the Democrat had zero chance of winning a two-way race

[Blue Idaho]

16. Isn't Kobach is up for re-election too?

Might just be his favorability is taking a dive after his attempt to influence the election in favor of his republican pal.

Personally, I think he should be held in contempt by the Supreme Court for his dubious use of half truths in his blatant attempt to manipulate the outcome of an election.

[TexasTowelie]

19. I heard on the TRMS that he is up for re-election.

He is running about as popular as the rest of the GOP in Kansas which isn't very well.