Article 4, Section 3 of the Kansas Constitution specifically states:
"All elected public officials in the state, except judicial officers, shall be subject to recall by voters of the state or political subdivision from which elected"
Note that it says IN the state, rather than OF the state.
The 2009 Kansas Statutes Annotated contains the following description of state law as it applies to recall elections:
Chapter 25 Section 4301 restates the Constitutional provisions above
Chapter 25 Section 4302 states that (a) "grounds for recall are conviction of a felony, misconduct in office or failure to perform duties prescribed by law. No recall submitted to the voters shall be held void because of the insufficiency of the grounds, application, or petition by which the submission was procured."
Section 4302 and all subsequent sections described below were set forth in a law passed in 1976 (chapter 178, section 16)
Several counties in the state of Kansas appear to misinterpet the Kansas law.
They specifically indicate that "national officeholders and judicial officers are not subject to recall."
Here's where the misunderstanding comes in:
Chapter 25 Section 4304 prescribes application of the act to state officers and local officers. It sets the procedures by which the recall of statewide officers and local officers can be recalled but does not set forward procedures for the recall of members of the US House or Senate.
The language states "Application of act; state officers; local officers: Sections 25-4305 to 25-4317 apply only to recall of the governor, members of the legislature, any public officials elected by the electors of the entire state, and members of the state board of education." All this means is that the legislature failed to specify the procedures for the recall of members of the US House and Senate. It does not mean that members of the US House and Senate are not eligible for recall. That fact is established in the State Constitution Article 4 Section 3, and codified in Chapter 25 Section 4301.
The steps as best can be determined at present for recalling a member of Congress or the Senate from Kansas appear to be the following:
(1) Form a Committee to Recall the member of Congress.
(2) Circulate an application to recall, which requires signatures of 10% of the voters in Moore's district
(3)File an application to recall with the Secretary of State. Pay $100 to State.
(4) Wait the Sec State's decision. If he were to accept application, then you would have 90 days to circulate SecState prepared petitions, which would require 40% of eligible voters to sign
(5) Recall election held
Additional advice from Kansas based attorneys may revise or clarify the contents of this page.
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The wording of the Kansas Constitution isn't really important. What matters is that the US Constitution gives the People of Kansas the power to elect Representatives for a defined term, and gives the House itself the power to discipline its membership, and to remove a member for misconduct.
ReplyDeleteI advocate amending the US Constitution to specify the power of the people to recall a sitting Representative (and, once we've restored the state legislature's power to elect Senators, for them to likewise have the power to recall by a majority in one house and 2/3 in the other) but for now this is a violation of the US Constitution.
That's what they do. We can do better.