Candidates In Close Kansas House, Senate Races Await Johnson County Canvass Results

From the Kansas Reflector:

By
Noah Taborda - November 11, 2020

TOPEKA — Election officials in Johnson County will soon add more than 10,000 ballots to current vote totals, which has the potential to flip several close state House and Senate races.

The Johnson County Board of Canvassers voted Wednesday to count 9,764 provisional ballots during the county canvass. An additional 1,267 ballots will be partially counted before county results are certified Thursday at 4 p.m.

The board opted not to count 2,242 provisional ballots.

Connie Schmidt, the county election commissioner, said the number of provisional ballots left to be counted was a notably “large number” and thanked her team of workers for ensuring every vote is counted.

“We have really worked on adrenaline over the last 45 days, pretty much nonstop with very long hours,” Schmidt said. “To count all the mail-in ballots to be processed was pretty much a miracle as we saw here.”

In an election with record turnout and record mail ballots cast, a high number of provisional ballots was not a surprise to county election officials. Slim leads in several area legislative races — especially in the House — could evaporate by day’s end Thursday.

Schmidt said 116,355 Johnson County residents voted in person in the advanced period, and 72,451 did so on Election Day. The county sent out a record 164,982 mail-in ballots and received 151,127 back.

Schmidt said 5,797 of the provisional ballots were from voters who had requested a mail ballot but chose to cast a ballot in-person instead.

Roughly 2,200 ballots won’t be counted for issues ranging from lack of photo ID presented to mismatched signatures election officials were unable to cure. Roughly 1,400 of those ballots came from voters who are not registered.

Additionally, 202 provisional ballots will not be counted because the voter already cast their ballot in advance.

With so many ballots left, Schmidt provided guidance on which candidates and races should be on alert.

“We have several races that are close, and they’ve been changing all week each day as we did the new updates,” Schmidt said.

One race where candidates will be on the edge of their seats awaiting results is in the 48th House District, where Republican Terry Frederick leads incumbent Democrat Jennifer Day by nine votes as of Nov. 6.

The 16th House District margin is even narrower. Democrat Linda Featherston currently leads Republican Rashard Young by just a single vote in the race for the seat vacated by Cindy Holscher, who holds a 3,520-vote lead over Republican James Todd in the 8th Senate District.

Featherston expressed confidence in county election officials making sure every vote counts.

“I’m a teacher, so teachers love teachable moments, and this is certainly a good moment for everybody to reflect on how important every single vote is,” Featherston said. “We knew this race would be closed. So, if ever you feel your voice isn’t being heard in a democracy, it’s certainly being heard.”

Young said he would be pleased with the campaign he ran, win or lose.

“We’re very confident in the work we put in on the ground level, and we do believe that we’ll come out of this victorious either way,” he said. “I think win or loss, it is a big win for our campaign.”

In Senate races, Democrat Stacey Knoell trails Republican Beverly Gossage by a little under 2,100 votes, and Democrat Lindsey Constance is down by a little more than 1,800 votes to Republican incumbent Mike Thompson.

The Kansas Reflector seeks to increase people's awareness of how decisions made by elected representatives and other public servants affect our day-to-day lives. We hope to empower and inspire greater participation in democracy throughout Kansas.