Kansas Abortion Vote: Why Elaborate With So Much Distinction?

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Associated Press

John Hanna Heather Hollingsworth and Nick Riccardi

Topeka, Kansas (AP) — Kansas announced on Tuesday a partial repeat of this month's decisive statewide yes vote. Started counting. For abortion rights, despite being a move forced by two Republican activists, the profit margin was so great that the recount didn't change the outcome.

Nine of the 105 counties in the state are recounting at the request of Melissa Leavitt of Colby in northwest Kansas. Mark Gietzen, a longtime Wichita anti-abortion activist, is covering most of the costs.

Higher-than-expected voter turnout on Aug. 2 removes abortion rights protection from Kansas constitution, empowering Congress to further restrict abortion Rejected the ballot measure. or ban it. Statewide, it failed by 165,000 votes, an 18 percent margin.

It received widespread attention because it was the first state referendum on abortion since the United States Supreme Court overturned her Roe v. Wade decision in June.

Why reaggregate if the results do not change?

Gietzen and Leavitt both suggest that there may have been problems without giving any real examples or evidence. In an interview, Gietzen admitted that he would be surprised if the Kansas recount changed the results, but that he wanted to "fix the system." He pointed out that although there is no evidence that any voting law violations or anything like that actually happened, it could have gone wrong.

Recounts are becoming a tool for encouraging candidate supporters or making them believe that the election was stolen rather than lost. Waves of candidates who repeated former President Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 election was rigged are calling for a recount after losing the Republican primary.

Nevada In the state, attorney Joey Gilbert raised money for a $190,000 recount but lost the Republican gubernatorial nomination by 26,000 votes. In Colorado, county clerk Tina Peters raised $256,000 to recount and won a total of 13 votes for the party's nomination for Secretary of State, but lost by more than 88,000 votes. Both candidates continued to claim that they had actually won the election. is a dangerous development for American democracy, said Tammy Patrick, a former voting officer in Arizona and now a senior official. Advisor to the Fund for Democracy.

"What we are seeing now is that people don't believe they have lost because they are constantly fed these lies about the legitimacy of the process." The recount call "will keep the base engaged, uplifted and donating," she added.

Deb Otis of the nonprofit Fair Vote reported that from 2000 to 2019 he found that statewide elections had recounts about twice a year. I have written. initial count.

"Voters will start to lose sight of when these claims are valid and when the state should pay for the recount," Otis said.

Kansas law requires a recount if the person seeking the recount proves they can afford the county's costs. The county only pays if the results change.

What is the process?

Kansas law stipulates that the county has five days from the time he is requested to complete the recount. The clock for a recount on abortion measures began Monday, when the Kansas secretary of state concluded that Gietzen and Levitt could cover the costs.

All nine counties will be finished by Saturday. The four will begin recounting by Tuesday, of which she is one, the county of Lyon, expected to be finished by the end of the day. The other five were scheduled to start on Wednesday.

Where does the money come from?

Leavitt and Gietzen provided credit cards to pay for her nearly $120,000 expenses, according to the Secretary of State. Leavitt's online fundraising page had raised more than $47,000 for her as of Tuesday afternoon. Gietzen also said the anti-abortion movement receives donations from a network that he has built over more than 30 years, but did not provide specifics.

The two originally hoped to be recounted in all 105 Kansas counties, but were unable to raise the required $229,000. The nine counties were selected based in part on population and cost, Gietzen said.

The votes are being recounted in Douglas County, where the University of Kansas' main her campus is located. Johnson County, a suburb of Kansas City. Sedgwick County, home of Wichita, and Shawnee County, home of Topeka. Crawford County, Harvey County, Jefferson County, Lyon County, Thomas County. Anti-abortionists lost all counties except Thomas.

Who's behind this?

Gietzen is an active participant in the anti-abortion movement, frequently protesting outside an abortion clinic in Wichita.He has his own group, Kansas Life Insurance. leading the coalition. This is separate from the larger and more influential Kansas for Life, which wields great power in the State Capitol. He has promoted legislation banning most abortions around the sixth week of pregnancy. Kansas law doesn't do that until week 22.

He also heads the Kansas Republican Congress, where he had some influence before conservative Republican activists cemented support for the state party organization more than a decade ago. He retired from the aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

He ran unsuccessfully for the legislature many times. He was also an activist against fluoridating the city's drinking water, which Wichita rejected in his 2012.

So far, yes, he's coming to the other side," said Wichita radio talk show host and former Republican congressman John Whitmer. rice field. "There's not a lot of wiggle room with Mark."

Leavitt owns a hobby and craft store in Colby. She questions how Thomas County handles elections.She was on a local election advisory group.

Why doesn't the result change?

Voters in nine counties said he cast about 59% of the more than 922,000 votes cast on the August 2 poll. They rejected the anti-abortion bill by 31 percentage points. This is significantly larger than the statewide total.

Recounts rarely reverse election results. Since the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, more than 30 statewide elections across the United States have been subject to recounts. The three that were overturned were decided by hundreds, not thousands, of votes.

The largest lead erased by a statewide recount was his 261 votes in the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election. There is no precedent in US history for a recount to overturn an election determined by more than 165,000 votes.

Even those who strongly oppose abortion believe that recounting is a waste of time and money. Whitmer said Republicans would be much better off spending their money on efforts to remove Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, or on competitive legislative seats.

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