On August 15, Kansas election officials said that Greg Orman’s petition to be on the ballot as an independent for U.S. Senate is valid. Orman is the first independent candidate for any statewide office to qualify in Kansas since 2004, when Michael Peroutka qualified as an independent candidate for President (he was the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee, but the Constitution Party was not on the ballot in Kansas at that time).

Kansas requires 5,000 signatures for statewide independents. Orman submitted somewhat over 11,000 signatures.