Topeka, KS – Kansans from all political ideologies and backgrounds voted today to protect their constitutional rights and the sanctity of their state’s impartial supreme court. Voters rejected by a margin of 65% to 35% Amendment 1, which would have amended the state constitution to allow for the selection of state Supreme Court justices via partisan elections while abolishing the state’s longstanding Supreme Court nominating commission.
Today’s success means that the current system of nominating and appointing justices to the Kansas Supreme Court will remain intact. Justices will continue to be chosen based upon their individual records as jurists, rather than their political affiliation or their ability to fundraise for costly elections. Had the amendment passed, future candidates for the state Supreme Court would have been selected by partisan elections, forced to raise funds and mount costly political campaigns to have any chance at assuming a seat on the state’s highest court.
For the Fairness Project, which this cycle is backing state-level campaigns across the country to bolster democratic institutions, including impartial state courts, today is a moment to celebrate as voters turn out to cast their ballots in defense of a fair and nonpartisan judiciary. The Fairness Project contributed $950,000 to this campaign, bolstering its efforts in the critical final stretch before Election Day.
“Kansans said loud and clear: no politics on the Supreme Court,” declared Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project, one of the nation’s largest backers of ballot measure campaigns. “Kansas’ knew what this amendment was about: allowing billionaires and their front groups to buy candidates for the Kansas Supreme Court. Asked to decide which system they preferred, voters were unequivocal: maintaining impartial courts is critical.”