Kansas abortion amendment recount ‘proves’ no systemic fraud in voting, top election official says

The state's top election official, Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab, said Monday that a freshly completed recount of the Kansas abortion constitutional amendment is proof of integrity in the state's election system.

The results, finalized Sunday after Sedgwick County belatedly completed its canvass, came after several days of work by the nine counties who were subject to the recount.

The recount was requested by Melissa Leavitt, a Colby resident who has trafficked in election conspiracy theories, and Mark Gietzen, a Wichita anti-abortion activist.

While the pair initially wanted a statewide recount, predicated on baseless allegations of fraud in the vote, they eventually pulled together $119,000 to count the results in the state's three largest counties — Johnson, Sedgwick and Shawnee — and six other counties.

After days of counting, the "no" vote side lost 57 votes overall, while the "yes" votes gained only six votes. That's a small fraction of the over 922,000 Kansans who voted on the amendment.

More: Did Kansas abortion amendment recount follow legal guidelines? Chaos may lead to fix.

Schwab said in a statement announcing the official results that "Kansans should be confident that these results put to rest the unfounded claims of election fraud in our state" and underscore that their votes are accurately counted.

"The results of this unprecedented recount of more than half the ballots cast in the 2022 Kansas primary election, with less than 2/100ths of a percent difference in the county canvasses and the recount process, proves once and for all that there is no systemic election fraud in our state’s election process," Schwab said.

Schwab also praised the work of local elections officials, who he said "have worked tirelessly to administer a secure election and complete the recount requests."

Schwab's remarks come not just after the recount but also the secretary of state's victory over Mike Brown, a former Johnson County Commissioner and promoter of election conspiracy theories, in the Republican primary on Aug. 2.

More: Kansas abortion amendment recount wraps up. After $119,000 spent, 63 votes changed.

Anti-abortion activist continues to object to recount

Gietzen, however, has maintained he is not satisfied with the recount, arguing Sedgwick County didn't follow proper protocols in how it conducted its recount.

He has said he won't pay for the county's recount, though he already fronted a $118,000 bond to recount the results in eight counties, including Sedgwick.

The recount in Sedgwick County took longer than anticipated, stretching beyond the 5 p.m. Saturday deadline counties had been given to complete the recount.

More: Kansas voters reject constitutional amendment in first post-Roe vote

Gietzen and others have argued the county didn't do enough to notify observers that the recount was still ongoing on Saturday. The issue caused some Sedgwick County commissioners to take the elections director, Angela Caudillo, to task Sunday.

“There are a large number of people that don’t believe our elections are fair and accurate,” county Commissioner David Dennis said. “We have to make sure that we do everything we can to dispel that myth. I truly believe they are; I’m not saying that they’re not. I believe that we’re doing the right thing.

"It’s just that we have to make sure that we do our part to keep the public informed, and we’re not doing that.”

More: Abortion amendment fails — with unexpected help from rural Kansas voters

Caudillo said observers did come on Friday and Saturday, although she acknowledged more could have been done to notify the public.

Gietzen, meanwhile, has said he will pursue a legal challenge to the election.

Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at abahl@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Scott Schwab says Kansas abortion amendment recount shows no fraud