Crawford County begins Aug. 2 recount after request by abortion opponents

Aug. 17—GIRARD, Kan. — Crawford County election officials this week started a recount of ballots on the Value Them Both constitutional amendment after a request by abortion opponents.

Kansas voters on Aug. 2 overwhelmingly rejected the amendment, which would have allowed the conservative Legislature to further restrict or ban abortion. It had been placed on the ballot by lawmakers who sought to undo a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that declared access to abortion is a "fundamental" right under the state's Bill of Rights.

Abortion opponents charged almost $120,000 to credit cards on Monday to cover the cost of a partial hand recount of the ballot issue.

As a result, the recount will occur in nine of the state's 105 counties that account for more than half of the votes cast Aug. 2, including Crawford County in Southeast Kansas, according to the Kansas secretary of state's office. Voters who want to keep the abortion rights allowed under the Kansas Constitution prevailed in eight of the nine counties.

With 40% voter turnout Aug. 2, Crawford County voters rejected the constitutional amendment with 5,845 "no" votes and 4,653 "yes" votes, according to official results. There are 26,183 total registered voters in Crawford County and 56 total precincts.

Lisa Lusker, Crawford County clerk, said the hand recount began Tuesday afternoon and will wrap up Wednesday. She said the recount is being conducted by a bipartisan group made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.

"It will be six Republicans and six Democrats on the board," she said. "Our elections process in the state of Kansas and in Crawford County is very secure. We're very confident in the results."

The Crawford County recount will cost an estimated $2,000, according to Lusker.

Request for recount

Melissa Leavitt, who lives in far western Kansas, initially requested a recount on the abortion question in all 105 counties in the state but only raised $120,000, which was enough to cover a partial recount. Mark Gietzen, a hard-right anti-abortion activist from Wichita who also promotes election conspiracies, pledged to help pay for the recount.

Kansas law says the person seeking a recount pays for it unless it changes the outcome, in which case counties do.

Leavitt said on an online site raising funds for the recount that she had "seen data" about the election. Her post did not provide specifics, and there is no evidence of significant problems with the Aug. 2 election.

Baseless election conspiracies have circulated widely in the U.S., particularly among supporters of former President Donald Trump, who has repeated false claims that he lost the 2020 election through fraud.

Lusker said she believes Kansas elections are some of the most secure elections in the nation. Election officials must abide by a system of checks and balances to prevent attempts of voter fraud, she said.

She noted that all of Crawford County's election equipment is stored in a secure location and can only be accessed by election staff. The tabulators are sealed until they're brought to the polls and opened up the following morning by the poll manager. She added that access to ballots is limited to election staff and poll managers.

"Everybody that handles anything to do with elections, we're all sworn in, and we all took an oath," Lusker said. "We all take it very seriously."

Each ballot cast is placed inside a secure box, Lusker said, and if it's submitted electronically through a machine, the tabulators also remain sealed until opened by election officials.

"When they're opened by the poll manager, they all go into a locked secure box, which is sealed until it comes into our office, where our staff will take it out," Lusker said. "We run through the write-ins, and we tabulate the results. Everything is secure. Nobody is allowed to access anything that's not with our office."

Post-election audit

On election night, the results are taken from the tabulators and all polling locations. Within five days of the election, the Crawford County office must complete a post-election audit, Lusker said. This year, that process consisted of selecting precincts at random and checking them against the total results.

"We have two members of the Republican Party and two members of the Democratic Party audit these results where they look at every ballot, mark down on tally sheets independently, and at the end of the precincts tabulation, the results are compared to what we had on election night and are verified," Lusker said. "Those boards are also sworn in by us, so they're election workers. Our results this time were 100%. We had no discrepancies."

After election night, the ballots are sealed in bags, put into boxes and stored in a secure location until further notice. Lusker said her office will open everything up for the recount panel this week.

"We're going to divide it up by precinct to make sure everything matches," Lusker said. "Then we'll open them up, hand count every ballot. The results are broken down into precincts, and we'll tally them up. ... We're going to work hard to verify the results."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.