Statewide amendment recount in jeopardy as fundraisers scramble, KS election offices wait
As Kansas anti-abortion activists scramble to find nearly a quarter-million dollars by 5 p.m. Monday, election officials across the state are waiting to find out whether they’ll have to officiate a hand recount of nearly a million ballots in 48 hours.
The Value Them Both amendment — which would have stripped the right to an abortion from the Kansas Constitution — fell short by more than 165,000 votes in the Aug. 2 election.
Mark Gietzen of Wichita and Missy Leavitt of Colby filed for a recount Friday. They used a credit card issued to the Kansas Republican Assembly that didn’t have enough money to cover the more than $229,000 bond required for a statewide recount. Gietzen offered his house as collateral, but was rejected.
If Gietzen and Leavitt fall short of their fundraising goal, they have signaled they could ask for recounts in counties where the amendment failed.
Leavitt had raised $39,843 in an online fundraising campaign as of 4:30 p.m. — roughly enough to recount Sedgwick County, home to the state’s largest city, and Shawnee County, where the state capital is located. It’s unclear how much money Gietzen will be able to contribute.
Combined, Sedgwick and Shawnee rejected the amendment by roughly 43,000 votes — about a quarter of the votes needed to change the outcome.
Even if every “no” vote changed, Value Them Both supporters would be more than 122,000 votes shy of victory.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab has given Gietzen and Leavitt until 5 p.m. Monday to come up with the money to recount what appears to be a landslide victory for abortion rights advocates in the nation’s first statewide referendum on abortion after the fall of Roe.
The filing deadline for a recount was 5 p.m. Friday.
“State law requires the request for a recount to be submitted by 5 p.m. on the second Friday following the election,” Whitney Tempel, spokesperson for the Secretary of State, said in a statement. “State law does not require the bond and the request to be submitted simultaneously.”
Monday afternoon, Gietzen said he was working to get enough money for a statewide recount, calling it a “much, much better choice” than ordering recounts in select counties.
Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Angela Caudillo said Monday morning that a recount could start in Wichita as early as Monday evening. She estimated it would require up to 200 counters — 100 Republicans and 100 Democrats — working in bipartisan teams to recount more than 142,000 ballots by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Gietzen said Schwab’s office provided a quote that showed a recount in Sedgwick County alone — where the amendment failed by more than 22,000 — would cost $31,800.
Nicole Gibbs, a spokesperson for Sedgwick County, said county election officers across the state are on hold to see whether Gietzen and Leavitt come up with the money needed for a recount.
“Until the Secretary of State’s office says ‘Make a recount,’ we are in holding pattern until then,” Gibbs said. “We’ve got to get an official word from them that we need to do a recount or that it has been paid for in the process.”
