OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A decisive Kansas-wide vote in favor of abortion rights has been confirmed with a partial recount by hand, a process in which fewer than 100 votes changed after the last county of this traditionally conservative state reported its results on Sunday.
Nine of the state’s 105 counties recounted their votes at the request of Melissa Leavitt, who has pushed for tougher election laws. Mark Gietzen, a veteran anti-abortion activist, covered most of the costs. Gietzen acknowledged in an interview that there was unlikely to be a change in the outcome.
A no vote in the referendum indicated a desire to preserve existing protections for termination of pregnancy, and the yes vote was to allow the legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion. After the recounts, the “no” lost 87 votes and the “yes” added 6.
Eight of the counties reported their results by the state’s deadline on Saturday, but Sedgwick County delayed releasing its final count until Sunday because spokeswoman Nicole Gibbs said some of the ballots were not separated for posting. correct constituencies during the initial count and needed to be reclassified on Saturday. She said the vote total did not change.
In a higher-than-anticipated turnout, voters in the August 2 referendum rejected a ballot measure that would have stripped the Kansas Constitution’s protections for abortion rights, and given the legislature the right to impose new restrictions or prohibit termination of pregnancy. The initiative failed by 18 percentage points, or 165,000 votes, statewide.
The vote drew a lot of attention as the first statewide referendum on abortion since the US Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade in June.
Gietzen, of the city of Wichita, and Leavitt, of the city of Colby, in far northwest Kansas, have hinted that there might have been problems, but didn’t give many examples.
Increasingly, recounts in the United States have become tools to encourage supporters of a candidate or cause to believe that the election was stolen from them rather than that they lost it. A string of candidates who have repeated former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was rigged have demanded recounts after losing their own Republican primary.
Kansas law requires a recount if the requesting party can demonstrate that it can cover the counties’ expenses. They pay the cost only in case the result changes.
Leavitt and Gietzen provided credit cards to cover the nearly $120,000 cost, according to the secretary of state’s office. Leavitt has a fundraising website. Gietzen also said that she receives donations from a network she has created during her three decades of anti-abortion activism.
Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.
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