Tag: abortion

Election official says recount of Kansas abortion amendment vote proves election integrity

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Secretary of State Scott Schwab says the result of a nine-county hand recount of ballots from the Aug. 2 election shows there is no systemic election fraud in Kansas.

The weeklong recount produced little change in vote totals showing Kansans overwhelming rejected a constitutional amendment on abortion. After exhausted election workers took a look at 556,364 ballots, the margin of rejection narrowed by 63 votes.

Colby resident Melissa Leavitt requested the recount, claiming vague problems with election integrity. She paid $119,000 toward the cost of the recount, combining money from her credit cards with an online fundraiser and support from Wichita anti-abortion activist Mark Gietzen.

The proposed constitutional amendment would have taken away the right to terminate a pregnancy in Kansas, overturning a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion rights in Kansas after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

Instead of failing by 165,389 votes, the recount showed the amendment failed by 165,326 votes.

“The results of this unprecedented recount of more than half the ballots cast in the 2022 Kansas primary election, with less than 2/100ths of a percent difference in the county canvasses and the recount process, proves once and for all that there is no systemic election fraud in our state’s election process,” Schwab said. “Kansans should be confident that these results put to rest the unfounded claims of election fraud in our state and know that our elections are secure and that their vote counted.”

Two other recounts also affirmed the results of GOP contests for state treasurer and a state House district.

Schwab’s office said hand recounts typically result in minor discrepancies. They can be the result of human error, or a ballot marked in a way that a machine couldn’t read.

Schwab praised the work of election officials and volunteers who “worked tirelessly to administer a secure election and complete the recount requests.”

“I have immense gratitude for their hard work and commitment to a safe and secure election process,” Schwab said.

Leavitt has raised $54,000 through GiveSendGo, a Christian-themed fundraising platform. More than 800 people donated, and more than 600 offered prayers, through the site.

In an interview Saturday with a GiveSendGo representative for Gab TV, Leavitt described herself as “an election integrity researcher.”

“When you’re talking about voting, you know, it’s vital that everything is fair, and free and it’s correct,” Leavitt said. “And so this is kind of a point where we can dig in, and it’s our right to ask for it.”

She also provided updates on her TikTok account while attending MyPillow mogul Mike Lindell’s “Moment of Truth Summit” in Springfield, Missouri, over the weekend.

The Secretary of State’s Office has pointed to the recount as a reason for not yet certifying a petition filed by Dennis Pyle, who hopes to get on the November ballot as an independent candidate for governor. He turned in nearly 9,000 signatures, which county election officials will have to review.

Pyle has repeatedly expressed frustration with the delay, accusing Schwab of helping Republicans who would prefer he stay off the ballot. Pyle is a conservative who is running because he thinks the Republican candidate, Derek Schmidt, is too liberal. Republicans fear his entry into the race will benefit Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.

“Partisan politics is already backing up my ballot access, not to mention the campaign, and participation in events,” Pyle said. “A lot of folks in Kansas are already suspicious that Secretary Schwab is responsible for giving us dishonest elections. Keeping me off the ballot and disrupting the campaign by purposely holding up the certification of my petition has only made their suspicions stronger.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/08/22/election-official-says-recount-of-kansas-abortion-amendment-vote-proves-election-integrity/

Kansas voters defeat abortion amendment in unexpected landslide

by Sherman Smith and Lily O’Shea Becker, Kansas Reflector

Overland Park — Kansas voters in a landslide Tuesday defeated a constitutional amendment that would have stripped residents of abortion rights, defying polling and political observers who expected a close result.

The ballot measure was failing by a 62-38 margin at 9:45 p.m. as voters responded to an intense and costly campaign marked by dubious claims by amendment supporters and the unraveling of protections by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The question before voters, in the form of a confusingly worded constitutional amendment, was whether to end the right to abortion in Kansas by voting “yes” or preserve the right by voting “no.”

The outcome could have far-reaching political implications, with a governor’s race and congressional seats on the ballot in November. It also means reproductive health care will remain available in a state where six girls younger than 14 were among nearly 8,000 patients who received an abortion last year.

“I’ve always maintained that a woman’s reproductive health care decisions should be between her and her physician,” said Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, in a statement to campaign supporters. “I’m proud to say that Kansans stood up for our fundamental rights today.”

The proposed constitutional amendment is a reaction to a 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court, which struck down a state law banning a common second-term abortion procedure. The court determined the right to bodily autonomy in the state constitution’s Bill of Rights includes the decision to terminate a pregnancy.

That meant abortion remained legal in Kansas when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing each state to determine its own rules for reproductive health care. Kansas attracted national attention as the first state to vote on abortion rights in the post-Roe world.

“You know,” said Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, “you go back to William Allen White: ‘If something is going to happen, it’s going to happen in Kansas first.’ A lot of friends from across the country are like, ‘Why is this on a primary ballot?’ So I think they’re paying attention to really some cynical tactics that the other side tried to play to their advantage.”

Voters showed up in unforeseen numbers in urban areas of the state, while rural areas underperformed compared to turnout in the presidential race two years ago. Forecasters with Cook Political Report and FiveThirtyEight predicted early in the evening that the amendment would fail, possibly by a double-digit margin.

Passage of the constitutional amendment would have nullified the Kansas Supreme Court ruling and given the Legislature the authority to pass any kind of abortion restriction, without exceptions for rape, incest or a patient’s health. The amendment’s defeat means abortion will continue to be legal — and heavily regulated — in Kansas.

Supporters and opponents of the amendment spent millions of dollars in campaigns to educate and influence voters.

The so-called Value Them Both Coalition refused to say whether it would support a ban on abortion if the amendment passes, routinely denouncing claims that the amendment equated to an abortion ban. But audio obtained by Kansas Reflector revealed that supporters of the abortion amendment already had legislation in mind that would ban abortion from conception until birth, without exceptions.

The Value Them Both Coalition denied Kansas Reflector entry to its election night watch party because the organization doesn’t approve of Reflector news stories.

On Monday, Democrats received a text message — eventually connected to former Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp — that inaccurately told them to vote “yes” to preserve reproductive health rights.

Opponents of the amendment have complained about its misleading language. A line-by-line analysis by the Guardian concluded “the ballot language sows confusion in an effort to push people to vote ‘yes.’ ”

The amendment claims to ban government-funded abortion, which is already banned under state law, and suggests the Legislature “could” provide exceptions in state law for rape, incest or the life of a mother — even though the amendment doesn’t actually require those exceptions.

Annual reporting from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows that a typical abortion in Kansas involves a woman of color between the ages of 20 and 30 who lives in Kansas or Missouri and is unmarried, already has at least one child, has never had an abortion before, is less than nine weeks from gestation and uses the drug mifepristone to terminate her pregnancy.

Because of existing restrictions, which remain in place even if the amendment fails, she has received state-ordered counseling designed to discourage her from having an abortion, waited at least 24 hours, looked at an ultrasound image and pays for the procedure out of her own pocket.

No abortions occurred outside of 22 weeks, the legal threshold except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/08/02/kansas-voters-defeat-abortion-amendment-in-unexpected-landslide/