Kansas Will Recount Abortion Vote By Hand, Despite Large Election Margin
Kansas held the first major vote on the abortion issue in the election .
Photo: Kyle Rivas / Getty Images
The director of elections for Kansas says the state will accept the request for a manual recount of the votes of all counties after the decisive statewide election of the last week that affirmed the right to abortion, even though there was a difference of more than165,000 votes for this right and a recount will not change the result , according to The Associated Press.
Three recount requests were filed yesterday by the 5: 00 pm deadline. Kansas House of Representatives District 118 Republican, State Treasurer, Republican, Constitutional Amendment. Updates will be provided when they are available. #ksleg
—KS Sec. of State (@KansasSOS) August 13, 2022
The voters rejected the last week a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have allowed the conservative, Republican-controlled Legislature to restrict even more or ban the right to abortion in the state. The measure failed because of 18 percentage points.
Any count, either whether statewide or in a subset of counties, is almost guaranteed to assert defeat of the amendment that would have restricted or banned abortion rights in Kansas. Any small difference in vote totals that can be found in the tallies is well below the margin of victory of 118,04 votes.
Melissa Leavitt, of Colby, in far west Kansas, requested a manual recount of the votes on this amendment
and refused to discuss the reasons for his request with reporters on Friday night, citing work obligations. But she said on an online site she was fundraising for a recount that she had “seen data” about the election. Your post was not more specific and there is no evidence of significant problems with elections in the state.
Unsubstantiated election conspiracies have been widely circulated in the US, particularly among supporters of former President Donald Trump, who has repeated false claims that he lost the election of 2020 for fraud.
Kansas law requires Leavitt to post a bond to cover the full cost of the recount.
Bryan Caskey, director of state elections for the Kansas secretary of state’s office, said would be the first count of votes on a statewide ballot in at least 30 years.
Breaking: A private citizen has posted a $118,000 bond for a hand recount of the abortion amendment constitutional statewide #ksleg
Missy Leavitt has been a major player in the election conspiracy theory debate in Kansas and posted a crowdfunding page seeking $ today
—Andrew Bahl (@AndrewBahl) August 13, 2022
Leavitt requested that the votes be counted before the 5 pm Friday deadline. Kansas requires a bond for the cost of the count before it begins, and a crowdfunding page had raised less than $5,000 dollars until Saturday afternoon.
Mark Gietzen, president of the group and an anti-abortion activist, said that provided a credit card belonging to the Kansas Republican Assembly to advance the state manual recount of the vote of abortion amendment expected to cost more than $229,000 dollars, according to The Kansas City Star.
Mark Gietzen, a long-time anti-abortion activist and leader of the Kansas Republican Assembly, said the group’s credit card was provided. https://t.co/XgTebFx8MF
—The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) August 13, 2022
Although Leavitt called for a statewide manual recount, Gietzen left open the possibility that the count could be lowered, depending on the amount of money ultimately available.
Whitney Tempel, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office, told The Kansas City Star on Friday that Leavitt had posted bail. of $165,000 Dollars.
Also seeking a manual recount of the votes is State Senator Caryn Tyson, who is behind Rep. Steven Johnson in the Republican primary for state treasurer by about 400 votes out of almost 550,000 issued. She is asking for a manual recount in about half of the 105 counties of the state.
It may interest you:
– Elections in Kansas: Voters defend the right to abortion and defeat proposal to limit it – Kansas: Supporters of Legal Abortion Score a Resounding and Iconic Victory in a referendum in the conservative state – “I hope they rape you”, furious anti-abortion woman repeatedly punched teen activist who knocked on her door in Kansas in the face
