by Mary Rupert
A complaint made by Board of Public Utilities candidate Thomas H. Gordon on Monday, March 9, at a voter canvass is not being pursued, according to Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby.
“There is no pending investigation and nothing to be resolved at this point,” Newby said.
Newby said he is acting on the advice from a legal opinion by a Unified Government attorney that the statute on the objections board deals with the nomination process and not the conduct of the election. The statute referred to nomination and declaration of candidacy, he said. The objections board is not used for complaints that are made after the election about the way the election was conducted.
Most recently, the objections board was used for questions concerning eligibility including federal offices in which Sen. Pat Roberts’ residency was challenged, and in which President Obama’s birthplace was challenged. In both cases, the candidates won this challenge and remained on the ballot.
The only two ways to challenge an election are to ask for a recount or to file suit in district court contesting the election, Newby said. The deadline now has passed for a recount for Gordon. Nathan Barnes requested a recount in the 1st District, UG Commission at large contest, after only one vote separated second and third places, and there were no changes to that position after the recount last week.
On March 9, Gordon stated at the Board of Canvassers meeting that he was filing a complaint with the objections board; however, Gordon did not state the specific details, such as specific votes he was challenging, when he was asked at that time. He cited statute numbers at the time.
Newby said Gordon’s written complaint mentioned that some of the news media reported different results on election night. Some of the media were reporting the partial results as they came in. Apparently a television news outlet used the election office’s third report, which was not a final result, instead of the final count of numbers on election night. Newby said the complaint seemed to imply that Newby had some sort of control over what the media reported.
“I am not now and have never been in control of [the media outlet],” Newby said.
Newby also said Gordon’s complaint asked the election commissioner to declare him as the winner of the BPU contest as a remedy.
Newby also stated that at no time on election night was Gordon in first or second places. Only first and second places go on to the general election.
At the vote canvass on March 9, the Board of Canvassers decided to count 43 provisional votes and not to count an additional 24 votes. That would not have made a difference in Gordon’s contest, as Gordon was 791 votes behind the first-place candidate, Chris McCord, and 656 votes behind the second-place candidate, Norm Scott.
Gordon, when he was reached Monday afternoon, said that he had not received any written notification from the election commissioner’s office about the outcome of his complaint.
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