Sedgwick County adds 1,326 votes to election; counting rules differ in Johnson County

Kansas’ two biggest counties made different decisions on how to count some ballots from last week’s election, meaning that some Sedgwick County voters who messed up on a form will have their votes count, while Johnson County voters who did the same thing won’t.

The conflict only affects 49 ballots out of more 200,000 cast statewide. In an ordinary election year it probably would have gone unnoticed.

But this time, those could be critical votes with Secretary of State Kris Kobach leading Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican race for governor by only 206 votes at the end of the business day Monday.

At issue are disputed provisional ballots, which were cast by voters who tried to switch from no-party status to affiliating with a party so they could vote in the primary on election day.

State law allows that last-minute switch, but there is a form for that and some voters didn’t fill out the form correctly.

Sedgwick County officials voted Monday to give those voters the benefit of the doubt; Johnson County officials voted to toss the ballots out.

Those decisions affect 14 Sedgwick County votes and 35 Johnson County votes.

Overall, Sedgwick County’s election board voted to count 1,326 provisional and disputed ballots, adding them to the total votes from the Aug. 7 primary election.

The results will be announced Tuesday morning.

The most disputed were 14 ballots cast at the polls by unaffiliated voters who indicated they wished to declare a party and vote in the primary, but who failed to check a box indicating the party of their choice on the form.

The election board voted 4-1 to count those votes.

The board is by law made up of the members of the Sedgwick County Commission. On Monday, one commissioner, Richard Ranzau, couldn’t be there, so his seat was taken by Karen Bailey, the chief deputy county clerk who was appointed as substitute.

Bailey was the only “no” vote on counting the 14 disputed ballots.

Commissioner David Dennis said it would have been easy for voters to miss what he called the “tiny box” on the form.

And Commissioner Jim Howell said the voters would have had to tell election workers which party they wanted to join to obtain a ballot. He also said he thinks the election officials at the polls should have checked that the form was completed before giving a ballot to the voter.

Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman remained neutral on the issue of whether the votes should be counted. But she did say she trains poll workers not to advise voters on how to fill out the forms because she doesn’t want them to be seen as encouraging voters to affiliate themselves with one party or another.

The decisions of which votes to count were part of canvassing the vote, a process that is usually ministerial and noncontroversial. But it’s been magnified this election because of the whisker-thin margin in the race for the Republican nomination for governor.

Immediately after the decision to count the 14 disputed ballots, Kobach’s assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker called to object, arguing over the legality of the decision with Sedgwick County Counselor Eric Yost.

Under pressure from Colyer and his campaign team, Kobach has recused himself from overseeing the election. He appointed Rucker, his employee and a supporter of his campaign, to act as chief election official in his place.

The ballots approved by the election board are now being counted by election office workers.

Many of those ballots will have to be counted by hand.

Results are expected to be reported at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Historic Courthouse downtown.

While Sedgwick County has decided to count the disputed ballots from unaffiliated voters the state’s other major county decided not to.

Johnson County Election Commissioner Ronnie Metsker apparently misspoke on the issue Monday morning, leading to confusion for the Colyer campaign and others about which ballots will be counted when Johnson County does its final vote tally Tuesday afternoon.

Metsker said 57 unaffiliated voters in Johnson County who were incorrectly told to cast provisional ballots would have their votes counted.

After the meeting, The Kansas City Star asked Metsker specifically whether this meant that voters who were told to cast provisional ballots without declaring a party would see their votes counted.

“That’s correct. We had one location where that happened,” Metsker replied. “These are citizens. We train them. We train them hard. There were a number of problems at that location.”

However, Metsker issued a clarification Monday afternoon saying the county would count only those unaffiliated voters who declared a party.

“This morning, the Board of County Canvassers voted to count 57 provisional ballots cast by unaffiliated voters who were mistakenly instructed to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day,” Metsker said in a statement provided by a county spokeswoman. “I recommended those provisional ballots be counted because those voters completed a voter registration application, which includes a party affiliation declaration, as a part of the provisional ballot process.”

But that doesn’t include the 35 other provisional ballots cast by unaffiliated voters who did not mark a form to declare a party. Those votes will be disallowed.

The Johnson County election board voted unanimously Monday to fully accept 1,176 ballots based on Metsker’s recommendations.

The board also voted to accept 275 ballots in part and to disregard 898 ballots for a variety of reasons.

The Johnson County board will reconvene at 4 p.m. Tuesday to certify the county’s election results after the new ballots have been counted.

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 1:21 PM.