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KS Supreme Court To Hear Senate Ballot Arguments

The Kansas Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on whether Democrat nominee Chad Taylor should be removed from race for U.S Senate in the November elections.

Taylor dropped out of the race this month, and he's trying to get his name off the ballot. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says Taylor's name should stay on because he did not say he was unfit for the position when he withdrew.

University of Kansas Political Science Professor Burdett Loomis calls the situation "extraordinarily unusual."

Loomis can't remember a legal battle with a high-profile candidate trying to be removed from the ballot in Kansas. He says that means the situation is headed into uncharted waters.

"I think you can see that, as it moves forward, that nobody really knows exactly what to do here," Loomis says. "There's no clear body of statutory law, there's no body of case law, at least in recent years."

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.

Stephen Koranda is the managing editor of the Kansas News Service, based at KCUR. He has nearly 20 years of experience in public media as a reporter and editor.