Hutchinson 102nd District Seat candidate will remain on ballot
UPDATE ON JUNE 21: The Kansas Secretary of State says Kyler Sweely will remain on the ballot.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Heat is turning up in Hutchinson over the race for the 102nd District Seat. The State Objections Board will meet Friday to decide whether to remove a candidate from the race.
Hutchinson residents and officials from the local Republican party tell KSN that complaints were filed at the state level. They are against Kyler Sweely, who is accused of moving to Hutchinson from Newton just weeks before filing to run.
The Democratic Incumbent, Jason Probst, raised the alarm that his challenger, Sweely, moved weeks before the deadline.
“Listed an address in Newton and changed his address and filed to run in this district, and he did that on May 31. By all accounts at the time, at least he appears to not be lived in,” said Probst.
Republican Candidate Sweely would not comment on how long he has lived at his new address but does not believe he will be removed from running in the primaries.
“I’m not going to go into terrible detail about that; I know that the committee will find the answer that we knew all along in confirming my residency here in Hutchinson,” said Sweely.
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Public concern is growing about the third candidate in the race, Republican Tyson Thrall, who originally filed to run for the 114th District Seat but has since flipped to run for the seat in the 102nd District. His filing is not in question at Friday’s hearing.
Thrall said he has lived in Hutchinson for the past four years, even running for a school board seat, and that he had moved to Nickerson for personal reasons.
“My homeowner had passed away, and the trust was selling off properties, so we had to figure out a different place to live right around the same time our baby was about to be born,” said Thrall.
There is public speculation that Republicans want to boost the odds of keeping their supermajority, allowing them to override vetoes by the governor.
Sweely reaffirms he’s in the race for the right reasons.
“Any election fraud or anything like that I take very seriously, and this is my integrity on the line, so it will be completely backed up tomorrow. I’m proud to be welcomed to Hutch,” said Sweely.
The state objections board meeting will happen in Topeka on Friday at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.
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