Kansas Abortion Vote: Why Have Such a Big Margin?

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas on Tuesday began a partial manual recount of this month’s crucial state vote for abortion rights, a move forced by two Republican activists even though the margin was so narrow. large than the count will not change the Quit.

Nine of the state’s 105 counties are counting in application Melissa Leavitt of Colby, in far northwest Kansas, who has pushed for tougher election laws. A longtime anti-abortion activist, Mark Gietzen of Wichita, covers most of the costs.

A higher than expected voter turnout on August 2 rejected a ballot measure that would have removed protections for abortion rights from the Kansas Constitution and given the Legislature the right to further restrict abortion or ban it. He failed by 18 percentage points, or 165,000 votes statewide.

It attracted a lot of attention because it was the first statewide referendum on abortion since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

WHY MAKE A COUNT IF IT WILL NOT CHANGE THE RESULT?

Gietzen and Leavitt have suggested that there might be problems without pointing to any real examples or evidence. Gietzen acknowledged in an interview that he would be surprised if the Kansas recount changed the results, but that he wants to “fix the system.” He pointed to possible things that could have gone wrong, such as malicious software, inaccurate voter lists and violations of electoral law, although there is no evidence that this has happened.

bill more and more they are tools to encourage supporters of a candidate or cause to believe that an election was stolen rather than lost. A wave of candidates who have echoed former The lie of President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was rigged have called for recounts after losing their own Republican primary.

In Nevada, attorney Joey Gilbert raised money to pay for a $190,000 recount that still showed he lost the Republican nomination for governor by 26,000 votes. In Colorado, county clerk Tina Peters raised $256,000 to pay for a recount that showed she won 13 total votes in her bid for the party’s nomination for secretary of state, but lost by more than 88,000 votes. Both candidates continued to claim that they had actually won the election, even when tallies showed they were nowhere near.

The refusal of candidates or campaigns to believe that they could ever be defeated in an election is a dangerous development for American democracy, said Tammy Patrick, a former election official from Arizona who is now a senior adviser to the Democracy Fund.

“What we’re seeing now is people just don’t believe they lost because they’re constantly being fed these lies about the legitimacy of the process,” Patrick said. The call for recounts “keeps your base engaged, buoyed and donating,” he added.

Deb Otis of the nonprofit group Fair Vote wrote a report that found there were roughly two recounts a year in state elections between 2000 and 2019, with only three changing results after the recounts uncovered small but significant flaws. in the initial count.

“Voters will start to lose track of when these claims are legitimate and when a state should pay for a recount,” Otis said.

Kansas law requires a recount if applicants show they can afford the counties’ costs. Counties pay only if the result changes.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

Kansas law says counties have five days after a request to complete a recount. The clock for the recount of the abortion measure began Monday, when the Kansas secretary of state’s office concluded that Gietzen and Leavitt could cover the costs.

All nine counties are expected to finish on Saturday. Four began counting Tuesday, and one of them, Lyon County, planned to end by the end of the day. The other five planned to start on Wednesday.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM?

Leavitt and Gietzen credit cards provided to pay the nearly $120,000 cost, according to the secretary of state’s office. Leavitt has an online fundraising page that had raised more than $47,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. Gietzen also said that she is receiving donations from a network built over three decades in the anti-abortion movement, but declined to be more specific.

The two initially wanted the vote to be counted in all 105 Kansas counties, but were unable to raise the required $229,000. Gietzen said the nine counties were chosen in part based on their population and cost.

Votes are counted in Douglas County, home to the main campus of the University of Kansas; Johnson County, in suburban Kansas City; Sedgwick County, home to Wichita; Shawnee County, home to Topeka; and Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon and Thomas counties. Abortion opponents lost all of those counties except Thomas.

WHO IS BEHIND THIS?

Gietzen has been active in the anti-abortion movement and regularly protests outside a clinic that performs abortions in Wichita. He heads his own group, the Kansas Coalition for Life, which is separate from the larger and more influential Kansas for Life, which wields significant power in the Statehouse. She has pushed for legislation to ban most abortions around the sixth week of pregnancy. Kansas law doesn’t do that until the 22nd week.

He also heads the Kansas Republican Assembly, which had some influence with conservative GOP activists more than a decade ago before they consolidated their control over the party’s state organization. He is retired from aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

He has repeatedly and unsuccessfully run for the Legislature, and has been a campaigner against cities adding fluoride to their drinking water, something Wichita rejected in 2012.

“It’s so far away, right, it’s coming from the other side,” said former Republican state Rep. John Whitmer, a Wichita radio talk show host. “There just isn’t a lot of wiggle room with Mark.”

Leavitt owns a hobby and craft store in Colby. She has questioned how Thomas County is handling its elections. She was part of a local electoral advisory group.

WHY WILL THE RESULT NOT CHANGE?

Voters in the nine counties cast approximately 59% of the more than 922,000 ballots on the August 2 ballot question. They rejected the measure by opponents of abortion by 31 percentage points, significantly higher than the statewide total.

Recounts almost never reverse the outcome of elections, even in the closest races. Since Florida’s recount for the 2000 presidential race, more than 30 state elections in the US have been subject to recounts. The three that were overturned were decided by hundreds of votes, not thousands.

The largest lead erased by a state recount was 261 votes in the 2004 Washington state gubernatorial election. There is no precedent in US history for a recount to reverse the result of an election decided by more than 165,000 votes.

Even some strong opponents of abortion see the recount as a waste of time and money. Whitmer said the money could be much better spent on Republican efforts to unseat Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly or on competitive legislative seats.

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Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri, and Riccardi from Denver. Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Missouri and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington, DC also contributed.

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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