OLATE, Kansas (AP) – Statewide Decisive Event vote in service of right to abortion in traditionally conservative Kansas has been confirmed with partial manual recalculation, with less than 100 votes changes after last county reported results Sunday.
Nine of 105 counties of the state spoke about their votes on request of Melissa Leavitt, who pushed for tightening of the electoral legislation. Longtime anti-abortion activist Mark Gitzen covers majority of Expenses. Gitzen acknowledged in an interview that is unlikely to change the outcome.
But no vote in the referendum signaled a desire to retain existing protection against abortion and yes vote was for allowing the Legislature to tighten restrictions on or ban abortion. After counting “no” votes lost 87 votes and “yes” got 6 votes.
Eight of counties reported their results by the state deadline on Saturday, but Sedgwick County delayed the release of its final count until Sunday because spokeswoman Nicole Gibbs said some of in ballots were not divided into the correct sections during the initial recount and had to be called in for help on the Sabbath. She said number of votes the cast as a whole has not changed.
Higher than expected turnout of voters on August 2 rejected the electoral measure, which removed protection for the right to abortion from the Kansas Constitution and granted the Legislature the power to further restrict or prohibit abortion. it failed by 18 percent points or 165,000 votes throughout the state.
vote attracted wide attention because it first state referendum on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
gitzen, of Wichita and Leavitt of Colby in far northwest Kansas, both speculated that perhaps problems without giving many examples.
Recalculations more and more tools encourage supporters of candidate or cause believe that the elections were stolen not lost. Wave of candidates who repeated former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was rigged has sparked for recounts after losing their own Republican primary.
Kansas state law requires a recount if who ask for it prove they can cover county expenses. Counties pay only if the result changes.
Leavitt and Gitzen provided the loan cards to pay for nearly $120,000 costaccording to secretary of states office. Leavitt has online fundraising page. Gitzen also said he received donations from network built over three decades in the anti-abortion movement.
Gitzen said on Sunday that he was not accepting results of Sedgwick County recount because of discrepancy regarding way in ballots were sorted, and because some of the recount took place on Saturday without outside observers are present to observe.
“We still don’t know what’s happened in County of Sedgwick. I won’t pay for Sedgwick County, he said.
He said that he also concerned about results across the state because of report out of Cherokee County in southeast Kansas results of one district elections are moved between two candidates when results were transferred on thumb drive from one vote machine to sum up machine.
Gitzen said he plans file a claim on Monday full State review.
Gitzen said he won’t give names publicly. of private donors help him fund the recount, although public ethics official says this is required. gitzen, who leads small GOP group Kansas Republican Assembly, claims he is not campaigning for anti-abortion measure, but instead promotion of electoral integrity.
The votes were counted in Douglas County, home to university of Kansas’ main campus; Johnson County, in suburban Kansas City; sedgwick County, home in Wichita, Shawnee County, home to Topeka; and Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon, and Thomas counties. abortion opponents lost everything of these counties except for Thomas.
In Jefferson County, the difference remained the same. with results of supporters and opponents of the amendments declining by four votes each. Linda Battron, county clerk, blamed the change on things like ovals are not obscured and challenges of manual account ballots”.
In the district of Lyon against the amendment group lost vote. County Clerk and Election Officer Tammy Wopat said she did not sure in reason. But she noted: “You have to consider in human error”.
Johnson County, the most populous in Kansas, faced the largest count challenge because it had the most ballots. It pulled in employees in different departments help. sorting process took so long that the actual count is not begin until Thursday evening.
“It’s almost like participation in the Ironman triathlon and the need add on another marathon at the end,” said Fred Sherman, county commissioner of elections. “So it’s a pretty gigantic process.”
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.
