Following up on my post on Friday about the long illustrious history of conservative vote suppression it’s interesting that one of the nation’s foremost activists in the field should be in the spotlight going into the November election. Indeed, he’s right in the middle of one of the most interesting races in the country.

I’m referring to Kris Kobach, the Republican Kansas secretary of state who was sued last week by the former Democratic candidate for the Senate who dropped out of the race in favor of an independent. If you haven’t heard about this wild turn of events, in a nutshell, the Kansas GOP is imploding under the disastrous leadership of the ultra-conservative Gov. Sam Brownback. It’s so bad that GOP leaders in the state are defecting from the party and it looks as though a former Democrat-turned-independent may just unseat long-term Republican incumbent Pat Roberts. Seeing the opening for an upset, the Democrats in the state persuaded their candidate to drop out and he agreed to do it. He followed all the rules for withdrawal, but Kobach’s office says no dice: You’re staying on the ballot whether you want to run or not.

According to Chad Taylor, the former Democratic nominee, he spoke with Brad Bryant, the secretary of state’s deputy, and he was told that his letter indicating his intent to withdraw contained all the information the law required. Bryant said in an an affidavit that this was a misunderstanding:

More: GOP’s New Partisan Hit Man: You May Not Know Kris Kobach — but You Should