Topeka ? Horace Edwards on Friday filed a lawsuit to get his name on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate.

Edwards, former Kansas secretary of transportation, launched a petition drive to run in the November election. But Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh declared that Edwards failed to get the necessary 5,000 signatures on the petition.

Edwards appealed that decision, but it was rejected by a three-member panel that included Thornburgh.

Edwards got 5,227 signatures, but Thornburgh invalidated hundreds of names because he said they had written down incorrect addresses.

Edwards, however, said Friday that he and his assistants re-checked many of those signatures and found them to be valid.

“He had not followed Kansas law,” Edwards said of Thornburgh.

The lawsuit, filed in Shawnee County District Court, seeks a court order to force Thornburgh to validate the petitions and place Edwards’ name on the ballot.

A spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office defended the process used to invalidate the petition, but declined to comment on the lawsuit. Officials with the office said ballots for military personnel had already been printed and were placed in the mail Friday.

Edwards, 79, served as state transportation secretary under former Gov. Mike Hayden. He launched a petition drive to oppose U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., because he said Brownback had become too concerned with social conservative issues. One of his main places to get petition signatures was in Lawrence on Massachusetts.

Lee Jones is the Democratic candidate opposing Brownback.