Kansas became the premier leader in saving women’s right to control their own bodies as guaranteed by its constitution. Voters rejected a Republican legislative amendment to its constitution on August 2. But that did not stop the Republican-heavy Congress from demanding a hand recount — which actually proved the original vote was unusually accurate.
The state is conservative but has a strong independent streak and the recognition of how women contributed equally to men. Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS), the only gay American Indian, heralds from Kansas. She boxes for fun.
The recount covered nine of the more populous Kansas countries and found 87 votes moved over to the “no” side, and six moved over to the “yes” side, according to The POLITICO. Had Kansas voted “yes” on August 2, the amendment would have allowed the state legislature to ban abortions altogether.
The Kansas City suburb Johnson County has the largest population. The county’s Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said the recount was “almost like doing an ironman triathlon:”
‘This is almost like doing an Ironman triathlon and having to add on another marathon at the end. So it is quite a gargantuan process.’
Only nine of the 105 counties in the state had to recount their votes at the request of Melissa Leavitt. She has been big on more voting restrictions. And Mark Gietzen, who has been a died-in-the wool anti-abortion activist. He covered most of the hand-count expenses.
Far more people turned out for the early August vote to keep abortion rights in the Kansas Constitution. And the initiative “failed by 18 percentage points, or 165,000 votes statewide,” the Associated. Press (AP) reported. Keep in mind, that the total population of Kansas is only 2.93 million, according to The Statista website.
Wichita native Gietzen and Colby, Kansas native Leavitt still thought there were problems after the recount. (Colby is about one hour from the Colorado border.) But they could not point to any specific instances.
Hand recounts have become the Republican Party line since Donald Trump let loose the “Big Lie,” that elections have been stolen rather than simply accepting a loss with dignity. The Big Lie was his invention after he lost in the 2020 presidential election. And the party has increasingly leaned toward endorsing homage to Trump over the Republican values.
Now that Leavitt and Gietzen lost, Kansas law demands they pay for the recount. The two whipped out credit cards to handle the $120,000 expense. The Kansas law also holds that the “counties pay only if the outcome changes.” Both individuals have been fundraising to cover the expenses.
Gietzen still did not believe the Sedgwick County recount given that it was the only county to miss the Saturday deadline. And some of the recounts did not include observers. He said:
‘We still don’t know what happened in Sedgwick County. I won’t pay for Sedgwick County.’
So, he indicated he would sue for a full-state recall. A Kansas ethics official noted that the two would have to give up the names of their donors. But Geitzen refused. He has been accused of promoting anti-abortion vs. election integrity.
Pro-abortion lost when:
- ‘Votes were recounted in Douglas County, a liberal county including the University of Kansas’ main campus.
- Johnson County, a suburb Kansas City.
- Sedgwick County, home to Wichita.
- Shawnee County, home to Topeka.
- [Plus] Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon, and Thomas counties.’
Other strong women to emerge from Kansas included the pilot Amelia Earhart, activist Erin Brockovich, anti-segregationist Linda Brown of Brown v. the Board of Education, and President Barack Obama’s mother Ann Dunham, according to the Kansas Women in History website.
The featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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