Category: Election 2019

by Mary Rupert

General election results were certified this morning, and Rose Mulvany Henry won one of the closest contests, the Board of Public Utilities, at large position 3 race, with David Haley in second.

While 138 additional votes were counted today at the canvass at the Wyandotte County Election Office and the vote totals changed, none of the Nov. 5 election night outcomes changed, according to election officials.

The new vote totals for Mulvany Henry were 6,206 to Haley’s 6,169, a difference of 37 votes. In the certified totals today, Haley narrowed the 44-vote election night margin. Unofficial results before today’s provisional ballots were counted had Mulvany Henry ahead by 50, as some mail-in ballots came in after the Nov. 5 election night, by Nov. 9.

Both Mulvany Henry and Haley attended the Board of Canvassers meeting today, awaiting the certified results.

“I’m grateful to the community for putting their faith in me,” Mulvany Henry said after the meeting.

Sen. Haley, who did not concede on election night because of the close vote, said, “I’m glad we’ll have a new voice on the board, to hopefully raise the voice of the public, and every vote does count.”

Haley recalled that in one of his early career elections, he won election by only five votes in the primary, and in 2006, when he ran for Kansas secretary of state, he was ahead in the primary by only about 200 votes.

The incumbent for BPU, at large position 3, Norm Scott, did not get through the crowded primary field.

The new Wyandotte County voter turnout percentage for the fall election increased slightly to 16.94 percent with the certified totals.

While Election Commissioner Bruce Newby today recommended counting 158 provisional ballots, he did not recommend counting another 58 provisional ballots.

According to the election commissioner, these ballots that were not counted included 19 who were not registered to vote; 28 who did not sign the voter affidavit in the advance mail ballot; three who changed their address but did not turn in a voter registration application for it; four who changed their names but did not turn in a voter registration application for it; one who moved out of the county; one who did not provide a photo identification before the canvass; and two who voted twice, one in advance voting and once at the polling place on Election Day.

About 25 provisional ballots were counted from voters who cast ballots at the wrong precinct, and 23 with address changes who voted at the correct precinct, according to election office information. About 19 voters voted the wrong precinct ballot and seven provisional ballots voted the correct precinct ballot, and were counted.

Nine ballots were counted from those who voted at a correct precinct, with a voter registration application; while 24 voters cast the correct precinct provisional ballot at the polls, which was counted, but they had been sent an advance ballot that they did not cast.

Twelve voters in the same households signed each other’s ballot envelopes, but were counted anyway, while 17 voters signed the ballot envelope in the wrong place, and were counted, according to election office information.

The final certified results for the general election are posted online at the Wyandotte County Election Office website at www.wycovotes.org, and at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56606b47e4b0b9403ad6ff96/t/5dd2f3ed6b252731315e5e63/1574106093840/SKM_C36819111812490.pdf.

Earlier stories about the election may be found at https://wyandotteonline.com/not-over-yet-mulvany-henry-cautiously-optimistic-about-44-vote-lead-in-election-haley-also-remains-optimistic/ and https://wyandotteonline.com/mulvany-henry-wins-bpu-at-large-position-3-ramirez-wins-ug-3rd-district/

.

by Mary Rupert

Christian Ramirez won the Unified Government Commission’s 3rd District on Tuesday night with 717 votes to incumbent Commissioner Ann Brandau Murguia’s 605 votes.

The 112-vote margin for Ramirez was a big change from the primary election results, where Brandau Murguia led Ramirez by 145 votes.

Ramirez attributed his win to a lot of hard work campaigning in the district, while Brandau Murguia said last-minute negative campaign fliers about her affected the outcome of the election.

Brandau Murguia, who has been a commissioner for 13 years, today offered her congratulations to Ramirez and said she would be available to answer any of his questions and assist him in the transition.

“And I hope District 3 continues to move forward,” she said. “We’ve made a lot of progress in the community, Argentine and Rosedale, substantial improvements, and I want to see that all continue.”

Ramirez: Knocking on doors made the difference

Ramirez today attributed his win to going door-to-door in the district.

“The way I was able to win, was I actually was out knocking on the doors and listening and talking to the people, and wanting to share their concerns,” Ramirez said.

Voter turnout definitely increased in the district. Four years ago, only a little over 500 people voted in the district compared to the general election Tuesday night, where 1,322 people cast votes.

Ramirez said one of the first things he will do when he takes office is to meet with all the nonprofit groups, the organizations, neighborhood associations and development associations, and create or re-create relationships to create a line of communication between them.

He said he had the same campaign style for the general election as the primary, knocking on doors each weekend.

“It was a very positive race between me and Commissioner Murguia,” Ramirez said. When he announced, he told everyone he was going to run a positive campaign, focusing on the issues, he said.

“I believe the voters are wanting a change, they’re wanting a more transparent government, a more accountable UG, and moreso, wanting a commissioner who will be out in the community to talk to the people and try to listen to their concerns,” Ramirez said. “They are wanting change for how our government operates.

“They want change, they want to make sure our government is working for them and not the other way around,” Ramirez said.

“I would like to thank all the 3rd District for believing in me and trusting in me for this position,” he said. “I’m ready to work for our community, work for the district and ready to move our community forward as one.”

Brandau Murguia: Negative flier has impact

Brandau Murguia said there was no doubt that in the last three years her family has had a lot of drama going on, with her false arrest for domestic violence involving a friend, and another news story this year regarding her ex-husband’s behavior.

“I think those things didn’t help matters, and then I think I underestimated the negative campaigning,” she said.

A last-minute flier went out about her that was “horrible,” she said. She was unable to trace the flier to an individual, she said, although it had an organization’s name on it.

“I thought they were so egregious and awful, I thought, no way anybody’s going to put any merit into this at all,” Brandau Murguia said. “I just underestimated it.”

She said she received sympathy cards and messages from people, and some said it was the worst case of hate mail they had ever seen.

“I don’t participate in negative politics nor do I respond to it,” she said. “I feel like that had an impact.”

Her campaign team wanted her to send out a negative flier about her opponent, but she said she did not want to do that. Also, she was advised to answer the flier, but she decided not to.

She said she thinks most people understand that there were things that had happened that were beyond her control, such as being a victim of domestic violence.

Brandau Murguia said she campaigned door-to-door in this election, spoke to a lot of people and put up campaign signs. “People were very supportive,” she said.

“I’ve been a commissioner for over a decade, for 13 years,” she said. “Maybe it was just that people were looking for a change. You never really know.”

The negative flier also claimed that she was backing Jorge Flores in his campaign against incumbent Commissioner Harold Johnson, but Brandau Murguia said she had not asked him to run. She added she was a friend of both Flores and Johnson, and she has never had any major disputes with Commissioner Johnson.

Commissioner Brandau Murguia also said that she did not get Angela Markley to run for the 6th District several years ago, but that once Markley was elected, they became good friends.

“Clearly my work has spoken for itself, the district looks fantastic from County Line to Strong Avenue,” she said. “There’s a lot to do, but we’re making incredible progress.”

The Argentine and Rosedale areas have experienced a lot of economic development during her term in office.

“Anyone who drove through District 3 today, vs. 13 years ago, no doubt sees that it is completely different than what it was 13 years ago, and the answer was better,” she said. “I let my work speak for itself but that doesn’t always work in politics, a lot of it is rumor and gossip, it’s a shame.”

Brandau Murguia said she is still serving the two remaining years on her Board of Regents term. She will be looking around in the future to see if there are some opportunities at some point for higher office, she added.

While some people believe she would be great at being in charge of economic development for an entire community, Brandau Murguia said she is taking a break for a while, and it will be nice to spend some time with her daughter.

“I’ve been in politics since she was born, so it will be nice to spend a lot of time with her,” she said.

Final unofficial results are in for the Wyandotte County elections, with Rose Mulvany Henry winning the BPU at-large, position 3, and Christian Ramirez winning the Unified Government Commission, 3rd District seat.

These unofficial results may not include any mail-in ballots that are currently in the mail and that have until later this week to reach the election office.

There were 13,934 ballots cast, a 16.45 percent turnout, according to the election office results.

Two state legislators who came in first in the primary elections for BPU seats came in second tonight.

In a very close contest, UG Commissioner Ann Murguia received 605 votes to Christian Ramirez’s 717 votes.

In another close contest, the Board of Public Utilities, at large position 3 contest, Rose Mulvany Henry won 6,026 to David Haley’s 5,982. Haley is a state senator.

For the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education, the top vote-getter was Randy Lopez with 3,798, followed by Yolanda S. Clark with 3,347, Valdenia C. Winn with 2,810 and Janey Humphries with 2,804. The top four are elected.

In the Board of Public Utilities, 1st District, Robert “Bob” Milan was the winner with 2,091 votes to LaRon Thompson’s 1,910 votes.

In BPU, 3rd District, incumbent Jeff Bryant hung on to his seat with 1,661 votes to challenger Stan Frownfelter’s 1,296 votes. Frownfelter is a state legislator.

The top four vote-getters for the KCKCC Board of Trustees were Rosalyn Brown, 7,185; Patricia L. Brune, 6,830; Donald Ash, 6,724; and Ray Daniels, 6,469.

Incumbent Unified Government Commissioner Melissa Brune Bynum had 66.7 percent of the vote, winning re-election over Mark Gilstrap, a former state senator, with a vote of 8,834 to 4,355.

In the UG Commission, 4th District, incumbent Commissioner Harold Johnson won with 67.8 percent of the vote, 889 to Jorge Flores’ 416 votes.

Commissioner Angela Markley won re-election to the 6th District, with a vote of 909 to Diana Aguirre’s 501.

For register of deeds, Nancy Burns received 10,853 votes to challenger Tscher Manck’s 2,106.

In Bonner Springs, Jeff Harrington was re-elected mayor with 694 votes to Jordan Mackey’s 232.

Advancing in the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Board of Education contest were Jennifer McConico, 842 votes; David J. Pierce, 831; Ashley Razak, 742; and John H. Claxton, 677.

UG Commissioner Brian McKiernan, who was unopposed, also was re-elected.

Wyandotte Countians voted 59.8 percent to approve a constitutional amendment on the ballot, with 6,927 yes votes and 4,652 no votes. This issue was on ballots statewide. The amendment will allow the state to count students and military service members in the census; currently, some of them are not counted as residents of the state. Many other states already count students and service members as residents for the census.

For more vote totals, visit http://www.wycovotes.org/ under “results.” (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56606b47e4b0b9403ad6ff96/t/5dc24d3767488341e24179c3/1573014839257/2019+General+Election+%28Final+Unofficial+Resuts%29.pdf )