The recall petition against Commissioner Todd Stanton, District 1, reproduced word for word as it was filed and as the County Attorney found it legally sufficient. Kansas law allows it 200 words. This is what they say.
This is the recall petition, exactly as filed. Kansas law gives a recall petition no more than 200 words to state its grounds, and those words are fixed once the county attorney has ruled on them — they cannot be added to, softened, or explained away afterwards. Everything else on this site exists to let you check them.
I, the undersigned, hereby seek the recall of Todd Stanton from the office of Seward County Commissioner, District 1, on the ground(s) that:
Commissioner Todd Stanton committed misconduct in office regarding the retirement benefits of Seward County employee Greg Standard, in violation of K.S.A. 21-6002(a)(3) (using confidential information acquired through public office to intentionally cause harm to another). The Board of County Commissioners never authorized Stanton to act on the County’s behalf regarding Standard’s KPERS or KP&F retirement, nor did the County Administrator or Human Resources, and Stanton was not a designated agent on the County’s KPERS account. Despite this, Stanton obtained a list identifying County employees enrolled under KP&F — confidential member data protected under K.S.A. 74-4909(10) — then used that data to contact the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) directly, asking KPERS to withhold his identity from the County while challenging Standard’s KP&F eligibility. As a result, KPERS reduced Standard’s first retirement payment pending review. After reviewing Standard’s job duties and service history — including his roles as Assistant Fire Chief, Advanced EMT, Hazmat Technician, and Storm Tracking Team lead — KPERS determined his benefits were properly earned and fully funded. His unauthorized use of confidential data caused needless harm to a 37-year county employee’s earned retirement livelihood and required significant staff time and resources to correct.
I declare that I am a registered elector of Seward County, Kansas, and of the election district of the officer named above.
The two statutes the petition cites are published in full by the Kansas Office of the Revisor of Statutes: K.S.A. 21-6002 and K.S.A. 74-4909.
Signing this petition does not remove Commissioner Stanton from office. It cannot, and it is not meant to.
What a signature does is put the question to the district. If enough registered voters in District 1 sign, an election is called, and the people who elected him decide whether he stays. That decision belongs to them — not to the recall committee, not to the County Attorney, and not to us.
Which means you can sign this petition and still vote for him. A signature says the question is serious enough to put to a vote. It does not say how you would cast that vote.
No court has ruled on any of this, and nobody has been charged with anything. A recall is not a prosecution. Commissioner Stanton is entitled to make his case, and he has — in a newspaper column and twice from his seat at the Commission table. Read him, read the documents, and decide for yourself.
Every sentence in the grounds above rests on a document. The short version is on The Record; the long version, with every email and date, is on the chronology.