Nine of the state’s 105 counties recounted their votes at the request of Melissa Levitt, who has pushed for stricter election laws. A longtime anti-abortion activist, Mark Gietzen, is covering most of the cost. Gietzen acknowledged in an interview that it was unlikely to change the outcome. The no on the referendum signaled a desire to maintain existing abortion protections, and the yes was to allow the legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortions. After the recount, “no” lost 57 votes and “yes” gained 6 votes. Eight of the counties reported their results by the state’s Saturday deadline, but Sedgwick County delayed releasing its final tally until Sunday because spokeswoman Nicole Gibbs said some of the ballots were not split into the correct precincts during the initial count. count and had to flee on Saturday. . He said the number of votes overall did not change. A larger-than-expected voter turnout on Aug. 2 rejected a ballot measure that would have stripped abortion rights protections from the Kansas Constitution and given the legislature the right to further restrict or ban abortions. He failed by 18 percentage points, or 165,000 votes statewide. The vote drew attention because it was the first state referendum on abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Gietzen, of Wichita, and Leavitt, of Colby, in far northwest Kansas, have both suggested that there may have been problems without citing many examples. Recounts are increasingly tools to embolden a candidate’s supporters or believe the election was stolen rather than lost. A wave of candidates echoing former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was rigged have called for a recount after losing their own Republican primary. Kansas law requires a recount if those requesting it prove they can cover the counties’ costs. Counties only pay if the result changes. Leavitt and Gietzen provided credit cards to pay the nearly $120,000 cost, according to the secretary of state’s office. Leavitt has an online fundraising page. Gitzen also said he receives donations from a network built over three decades in the anti-abortion movement. Gitchen said Sunday that he does not accept the results of the Sedgwick County recount because of a difference in how the ballots were tabulated and because some of the counting was done on Saturday without outside observers watching. “We still don’t know what happened in Sedgwick County. I will not pay for Sedgwick County,” he said. He said he is also concerned about statewide results because of a report from Cherokee County in southeast Kansas about one county’s results being transferred between two candidates when the results were thumbed from a voting machine to a sorting machine. Gitchen said he plans to file a lawsuit Monday seeking a full statewide recount. Gitchen said he would not publicly name the private donors helping him fund the recount, even though a state ethics official says it is required. Gietzen, who leads a small GOP group, the Kansas Republican Assembly, says he is not campaigning on the anti-abortion measure but promoting election integrity. Votes were recounted in Douglas County, home to the University of Kansas’ main campus. Johnson County, in the suburbs of Kansas City; Sedgwick County, seat Wichita, Shawnee County, seat Topeka. and Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon and Thomas counties. Abortion opponents lost all of those counties except Thomas. In Jefferson County, the margin remained the same, with the totals for and against the amendment falling by four votes each. Linda Buttron, the county clerk, blamed the change on things like the ovals not being darkened and “the challenges of counting ballots by hand.” In Lyon County, the anti-amendment group lost a vote. County clerk and elections official Tammy Vopat said she wasn’t sure of the reason. But he noted: “You have to factor in human error.” Johnson County, the most populous in Kansas, faced the biggest challenge in the recount because it had the most ballots. He pulled in workers from various departments to help. The sorting process took so long that the actual counting did not begin until Thursday afternoon. “This is almost like doing an Ironman triathlon and having to add another marathon on top,” said Fred Sherman, the county’s election commissioner. “So it’s a gigantic process.”
Hannah reported from Topeka, Kansas. Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.
This story has been corrected to show that an anti-abortion activist planned to file a lawsuit seeking a full statewide recount, not a recall.
