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A follow up to a post earlier this week about T.J. Reardon and his efforts to get a grand jury.

Reader Joseph Moore asked the following:

"After the Wyandotte County Election Commissioner validated over 900 of the signatures", the UG and BPU filed objections in November.

Judge Barry Bennington ruled that less than 400 of the original signatures in Reardon's petition were valid.

I'm lost on that one. The Wyandotte County Election Commissioner's validation is no good?

Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby emailed the following statement on the matter

To answer the question – The County Election Commissioner does not “validate signatures.” The statutory requirement is that the “county election officer shall determine whether the persons whose signatures are affixed to the petition are qualified electors of the county.” In other words, the County Election Office answers the question whether and how many of the persons whose names, addresses and signatures are applied to the petition are registered to vote in Wyandotte County. The validity of the signatures was a separate issue addressed by the court.