A Eudora man is preparing to file an action against the State Objections Board after it denied his petition to run for Congress.

Wayne Briscoe, 57, is currently preparing a writ of mandamus, which, if successful, would force the state to put his name on the November ballot. He wants to run as an independent candidate to represent the state’s 3rd Congressional District. After collecting more than the 5,000 signatures required to get his name on the ballot, he filed a petition with the secretary of state’s office Aug. 2 and waited for verification.

According to the state’s election standards, the verification process is supposed to take 10 days, but Briscoe wasn’t notified of the denial until Aug. 17.

“When I asked them why the petition was going to be denied they basically said that there was some insufficiencies with the affidavits on the petition,” he said.

Briscoe appealed the decision last Friday.

“I was filing my objection based on two issues,” he said, “the sufficiency of the affidavit and the second was the secretary of state was outside the statute when he provided notice of the petition.”

At the hearing concerning Briscoe’s petition, the State Objections Board, which is made up of Secretary of State Chris Biggs, Lt. Gov. Troy Findley and Attorney General Steve Six, said the affidavits signed by petition circulators were dated before many of the signatures were collected, making them invalid. Briscoe hopes what he considers a “technical and clerical error” won’t keep him off the ballot.

“The judge will decide based on the evidence that’s presented to him whether or not that writ of mandamus should be performed and extraordinary judgment given to us and force them to place our name on the ballot.”

Briscoe said he feels his constitutional right to ballot access is worth the fight.

“I think it’s important that I take them to task on this issue,” he said. “It’s going to be important to the next group of independent candidates that comes forward in the state of Kansas.”

Calls to the secretary of state’s office seeking comment Tuesday were not immediately returned.