(AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s office has rejected a request from the League of Women Voters to identify the applicants for a new seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Kansas chapter president Dolores Furtado said Monday that the process created this year by legislators for picking Court of Appeals judges is less open than the former process.

But Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said the state is following the same process used for picking federal judges for more than 200 years.

Furtado sent Brownback a request last week under the state’s Open Records Act. His office replied that the law doesn’t require the release of information about applicants.

Previously, when a nominating commission screened applications, the names were disclosed.

But that process had no Senate confirmation, as the new process does.