TOPEKA — Senate Democrats questioned a plan to require all election-related state lawsuits to be filed in Shawnee County, supposedly to prevent voting rights groups from looking for favorable venues.

Sen. Marci Francisco, a Lawrence Democrat, pointed out the irony behind House Bill 2569 during debate Wednesday in the Senate. There are just three judges in Shawnee County District Court who handle civil cases, and one of them has a history of issuing partisan rulings that are overturned on appeal.

“My concern would be that just limiting the ability to file for those under those three judges could also be considered judge shopping,” Francisco said.

The Senate advanced the bill, which cleared the House on a 74-48 vote on Feb. 19, despite additional objections from Democrats about placing litigants from far corners of the state at a disadvantage. The Senate has yet to take final action on the bill.

All but two election-related lawsuits in recent years were filed in federal court or Shawnee County. The 2022 challenge to gerrymandered political maps was filed in Wyandotte County, and the Kansas Supreme Court ultimately upheld the maps.

Last year, voting rights groups filed a lawsuit in Douglas County, where the plaintiffs live, over a new law that restricted the timeframe for accepting advanced ballots. The Republican National Committee tried to intervene in the case, but District Judge Carl Folsom denied their request. Folsom has yet to rule on a temporary injunction that would block the law until the case is resolved.

Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, argued the bill “would promote fairness, consistency and judicial efficacy in the whole process.”

“And it would prevent venue shopping, which happens,” Thompson said. “So it’s as simple as that. The Shawnee District Court has a larger pool of judges than most judicial courts are used to dealing with these election type issues, and so it just makes total sense.”

Shawnee and Douglas county courts both have three judges who handle civil cases.

Sen. Ethan Corson, D-Fairway, and Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, both raised concerns about placing a hardship on plaintiffs who live outside of Shawnee County. Both are seeking the Democratic nomination for governor this year.

“That is my lingering concern with this is just that the cost of hiring a lawyer and then having to pay for their travel time, you know, if they had to drive five hours for a hearing, five hours back,” Corson said.

Holscher said 88% of the state’s population lives at least an hour away from Topeka.

“The reality is that we put an unfair burden on those individuals that live outside of the immediate area,” she said. “That impacts people in rural areas. That impacts people in the urban areas, too.”

Sen. Bill Clifford, R-Garden City, dismissed those concerns as somebody who experiences “the hardship of traveling to Topeka weekly” throughout the legislative session.

“I can assure you that we’re hardy folk out west, and we certainly think that this appropriately should remain in Shawnee County,” Clifford said. “We generally don’t question election law. We vote, and we actually vote a certain way, and we are very proud of that.”

In Finney County, Clifford won 72% of the roughly 10,000 votes in the 2024 general election, while 66% supported President Donald Trump.

Thompson closed the debate by claiming most of the election-related lawsuits are from “one law firm based out of Topeka” and are “run by well-financed Washington, D.C., law firms.”

Loud Light, a voter rights advocacy group, is represented by a Topeka attorney and an attorney from the D.C.-based Elias Law Group.

“So there’s absolutely venue shopping there,” Thompson said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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