GOP primary for KS treasurer too close to call; triggers new provision in state law

The GOP primary for Kansas treasurer was too close to call on election night — and remained a tight race early Wednesday afternoon with fewer than 800 votes separating the candidates, according to unofficial final election results posted on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website.

Republicans Steven Johnson and Caryn Tyson were neck and neck, with Johnson narrowly leading Tyson 50.1% to 49.9%. By 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, a total of 426,677 ballots had been counted.

At one point Tuesday night as results rolled in, with more than 389,000 ballots counted, the split was just 20 votes.

Contacted Wednesday, a spokesman for Johnson said he preferred to wait until more advance mail-in ballots had been counted before commenting on the race.

Tyson said she, too, was waiting to see the provisional and mail-in ballot tallies.

“The election results are extremely close,” she said by phone without commenting on the unofficial results.

“We ran a very professional campaign based on facts. I visited every county in the state of Kansas, met some wonderful people and am excited about all of the connections we made across the state. I will continue to work diligently for Kansas and for Kansas taxpayers so that we get smaller, smarter government.”

By mid-afternoon Wednesday, Johnson’s lead over Tyson had widened slightly to 771 votes, up from 765 earlier in the day.

The race isn’t over yet — and likely won’t be called for some time.

Provisional ballots haven’t been tallied, and mail-in ballots postmarked by election day will be counted if they arrive by Friday.

The Kansas Secretary of State Deputy of Election Bryan Caskey told reporters Wednesday morning that the close results have also triggered a new provision in state law that requires all of Kansas’ 105 counties to audit an additional 10% of their precincts for races within 1% on election night, in addition to completing regular post-election audit requirements.

The special audit requires a hand count that Caskey said will take place this week.

The regular post-election audit requires each county to audit a statewide, a state legislative and a county race. The counties will also be asked to audit the constitutional amendment vote, Caskey said.

“Every county will have to convene a hand count board and count all those (extra) precincts by hand and compare them with the machine total to verify that everything worked correctly,” Caskey said.

For smaller, rural counties that might mean one additional precinct.

But for larger counties, “it’s going to be significantly more,” Caskey said.

Johnson County, which has 610 precincts, “will have to audit approximately 60 more precincts just for state treasurer,” he said.

Sedgwick County, with 364 precincts, would audit around 36 more.

The audit results and machine vote counts must match exactly. If they don’t, Caskey said the secretary of state’s office would probably order additional audits.

“We do not tolerate any variance,” he said, adding that there has been none in the three prior years, “so that’s the standard we go by.”

Counties begin their portion of the audits Thursday and must complete them before certifying election results at the local level starting next week, Caskey said.

The state board of canvassers must certify the race results for national state offices no later than Sept. 1, Caskey said, adding that the exact date hasn’t been set yet.

“It will depend on how quickly we get all the things done that we need to prior to the certification,” he said.

Tyson, a state senator from Parker, was first elected to the Kansas House in 2010 and has been in the Kansas Senate since 2013. The conservative Republican chairs the Senate tax committee.

Johnson, a state representative from Assaria, was also first elected to the Kansas House in 2010. He is the former chair of the House tax committee and currently chairs the House Insurance and Pensions committee.

The primary winner will compete against Democrat Lynn Rogers for the seat in November’s general election. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Rogers, her lieutenant governor, to the treasurer’s office last year after Republican Jake LaTurner was elected to represent Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The state treasurer manages the state budget and maintains a list of unclaimed property in Kansas.

This story was originally published August 3, 2022 at 12:15 AM.

Katie Bernard

The Kansas City Star

(816)234-4167

Katie Bernard covered Kansas politics and government for the Kansas City Star from 20219-2024. Katie was part of the team that won the Headliner award for political coverage in 2023.