Chad Taylor, the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat in Kansas currently held by the long-serving but vulnerable Republican Senator Pat Roberts, recently announced that he was withdrawing from the race.

The move was widely seen as an attempt to improve the chances of the Independent candidate Greg Orman, who was consistently finishing ahead of Taylor in the polling and seemed to be competing with him for the support of many of the same voters. Roberts’ support is also being siphoned off by Randall Batson, the Libertarian candidate. So it was not very surprising that, following Taylor’s withdrawal from the race, Orman has surged significantly in the polls, rising in some polls to within a point or two of Roberts.

Now, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, has denied Democrat Chad Taylor’s request to be removed from the Kansas Senate ballot.

Kobach told reporters that, after evaluating state election law statutes, his legal team found that Taylor did not meet the law’s requirement to provide sufficient “evidence he would be incapable of fulfilling the duties of office if elected.”

If Kansas voters have any sense of humor left after the Brownback years, they should vote in droves for Taylor. If they are truly as pragmatic as Kansans are supposed to be, they should vote for Orman.