Johnson County stunner: Kobach gains votes there, along with Sedgwick, Leavenworth
Secretary of State Kris Kobach has widened his lead over Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican race for governor, including a stunning setback for Colyer’s hopes in Johnson County.
Colyer had handily won the state’s most populous county and was counting on picking up additional votes there as the final tallies were done of absentee, provisional and disputed ballots.
But instead of gaining votes, Colyer fell 24 further behind Kobach.
This expanded Kobach’s lead to 345 statewide, possibly an insurmountable lead with a dwindling number of votes left to count.
The two candidates were separated by 191 votes in the unofficial tally after Tuesday’s primary.
“It is what it is,” said Clay Barker, special assistant to Colyer and former executive director of the Kansas Republican Party.
The Johnson County disappointment for team Colyer came only hours after Kobach had picked up an additional 94 votes in the Sedgwick County canvass Tuesday morning.
Sedgwick County agreed to count an additional 1,326 disputed and provisional ballots on Monday.
The final count in Sedgwick County was 19,937 votes for Kobach and 16,168 for Colyer.
Leavenworth County also held its canvass Tuesday, where Kobach picked up an additional 18 votes compared to the results reported election night. The final count there was Kobach 3,881; Colyer 2,591.
On Monday, Kobach picked up 22 votes in Butler County, where the final tally was Kobach 4,381; Colyer, 3007.
At the end of the business day Monday, Kobach was leading Colyer by 206 votes.
Among the remaining larger counties, Shawnee, Douglas, Reno and Wyandotte are scheduled to canvass their results Thursday.
Colyer led big in Shawnee and Douglas after Tuesday’s primary and would be expected to pick up some votes there.
Reno County was close to tied in the so-far unofficial results and Wyandotte appears to favor Kobach.
An hour before the Johnson County canvassing board began its meeting, Colyer’s legal team sent the board a letter arguing that 153 ballots that had been discarded because of mismatching signatures should be included in the county’s final vote tally.
Colyer’s legal team argued that Kansas law does not require a signature match as a precondition for counting a ballot.
Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita and a Kobach supporter, sent a warning tweet Tuesday afternoon, saying: “Democrats are hoping for a drawn-out litigation process because it’s the only way they can win this November. It’s time for the @KansasGOP to unite & back whoever comes out on top this week. Let’s keep Kansas red!”
This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 10:33 AM.