"No Labels" and "United Kansas" are new political parties
Will "fusion" voting add confusion to the voting process?
Updated with information from the Secretary of State’s office.
No Labels
The Kansas Secretary of State announced on Jan. 17 that “No Labels” was officially recognized as a political party.
No Labels Kansas joins the Libertarian Party, recognized in 1992, as a minor political party. It cannot participate in the August primary election and instead must nominate candidates for the November general election by convention or caucus. A minor party can become a major party and be entitled to nominate its general election candidates at the August primary, if its governor candidate receives more than five percent of the statewide vote.
On Feb. 19 Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced some of the signatures in the No Labels petition had been forged and a Florida man had been arrested.
The Secretary of State has not yet published party registration numbers for February 2024, but there was only a single No Labels voter in Kansas at the end of January.
No Labels Kansas has no separate website. No references to “Kansas” can be found on their national website.
United Kansas
Last week KSN reported about the new United Kansas party and the “fusion voting” they are advocating.
KSN’s article shows a hypothetical ballot with a candidate, John Doe, listed on the ballot as from “Party B” and separately listed on the ballot as part of the “United Kansas” party.
With fusion voting, a candidate’s name could appear on the ballot twice — once under the candidate’s party and once under the United Kansas party.
In this sample scenario, election officials would add John Doe’s results for Party B and for United Kansas to get his total votes. Source: KSN
Wouldn’t ballot fairness be listing each candidate’s name only once on a ballot? Why should some candidates be mentioned more than once on a ballot?
If one voted for both John Doe (Party B) and John Doe (United Kansas) on such a ballot, would the ballot be discarded as an overvote?
A source at the Secretary of State’s office said their office has no position about “fusion voting” at this time, but provided this information:
United Kansas claims that they want to use “Fusion” tickets, i.e., their party may nominate either the Dem or GOP candidate to be the United Kansas candidate in the general election.
So the general election ballot could be:
John Smith (Republican)
Jane Doe (Democrat)
Jane Doe (United Kansas)
Fusion tickets were used in Kansas in the 1892 and 1896 elections when the Populist Party and the Democrat Party would agree to a Fusion Slate and nominate each other’s candidates.
In 1901, the legislature banned the practice of Fusion Tickets by prohibiting (1) any person to “accept more than one nomination for the same office” and (2) that “ the name of each candidate shall be printed on the ballot once and no more.” Those two prohibitions, with some wording changes, are still in our statutes:
KSA 25-613 (one name per ballot),
25-306 (person may accept only one nomination),
25-306(e) (declining an office if nominated for two offices , e.g. one via ballot votes and one via write-in votes)
Additionally, fusion tickets may present practical problems for United Kansas. June 1 is the deadline for candidates to file for the Democratic and for the Republican primary election. June 1 is also the deadline for minor parties to file their candidates selected by convention/caucus. (KSA 25-305 – which incorporates 25-205). So, UK's candidate names are due before the final field of R and D primary candidates, and 3 months before the names on the general election ballot are certified at the primary state canvas at the end of August.
Sunflower State Journal reports “United Kansas” filed their petition with 35,000 signatures on March 12 with the Kansas Secretary of State.
County clerks and election commissioners will verify those signatures within 20 days and report back to the Secretary of State. So, April Fools’ Day appears to be the deadline.
United Kansas’ website shows their leadership:
Jack Curtis, Chair. Curtis is a registered unaffiliated voter in Topeka.
Sally Cauble, Vice Chair. Cauble was first elected to the Kansas Board of Education in 2006 and was re-elected in 2010 and 2014. In 2014 Cauble won with endorsement of the progressive MainPAC and $1000 contribution from progressive Kansas NEA. Cauble currently is a registered Republican in Wichita.
Aaron Estabrook, Treasurer. Estabrook is currently registered in Manhattan as an unaffiliated voter but has been registered as a Democrat followed by a Republican in past years. In 2012 Estabrook was the founder of The Moderate Party of Kansas that represented “citizens dissatisfied with existing parties.” In 2016-2018 he was Executive Director and member of the steering committee of Save Kansas Coalition, a group of progressive organizations.
Corporation Record
From the Secretary of State’s Business entity search:
