By Earl Glynn

Three candidates in the August primary election each know for sure one vote they won’t get:  Their own.

According to analysis of the voter registration and voter history of the 39 candidates running for U.S. Senate or U.S. House from Kansas three cannot cast ballots for themselves unless they change their current voter registrations.

Robert Conroy’s bid for U.S. Senate

Robert Conroy, 82, Shawnee, is Democrat who filed to run for U.S. Senate.  “I’m just a working person.  I’ve always been a Democrat.”

But the Johnson County Election Office confirmed on Monday that Conroy is currently a registered Republican.  Voter registration records show Conroy has been a Republican for about two years but was registered as a Democrat before that.

Conroy does not know why records show he is now a Republican.  “If someone switched it to Republican, I have no control over that.”

Tyler Longpine, Kansas Democratic Party Communications Director, said the Democratic Party primary is open to unaffiliated voters, but not Republicans.  Conroy will need to re-register to vote for himself in the primary.

Bryan Caskey from the Kansas Secretary of State’s office said the voter registration form and the filing form to run for office do not have to correlate.  The selection on the filing form is the one that is put on the ballot.

Tom Scherer’s Run for KS-3 Congress

Tom Scherer, 56, a candidate for the U.S. House, recently changed from a Republican to a Democrat to run against Stephene Moore in a two-way primary avoiding the nine-way Republican primary in the Kansas 3rd Congressional District.

But voter registration records from the Secretary of State show no Tom Scherer registered to vote in Kansas now.

When reached by phone in Prairie Village, Scherer said “I was registered in Kansas …, but I’m registered in Florida right now.” Scherer admitted he cannot vote for himself in August.  “I’m a snowbird.”  Scherer registered to vote in January 2010 in Lee County Florida.

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