Allen Countians were evenly split Tuesday on deciding whether the state constitution affords the right to abortion.
By the time ballots were tabulated, Allen Countians were narrowly in favor of an amendment that would have opened the door for lawmakers to pass laws further restricting abortion access by a margin of 20 votes, 1,836 to 1,816, or a margin of 50.3% to 49.7%. Statewide, Kansas voters rejected the amendment by 18 percentage points, 59% to 41%.
Allen County’s margin may change in the coming days as late-arriving ballots come into the county clerk’s office through the mail. Any ballot postmarked by Tuesday will be counted, provided it is delivered to the courthouse by Friday.
Also to be considered are 57 provisional ballots, or those in which voter information did not match what was on the voting rolls when the vote was cast. Allen County commissioners will decide on the veracity of the provisional ballots when they canvass the election on Tuesday morning.
Allen Countians echoed the rest of the state in a number of contested races, opting for Kris Kobach in a three-way race to be the Republican nominee for attorney general in the November general election, 45% to Kellie Warren’s 41%. Allen Countians also favored Sen. Jerry Moran to keep his U.S. Senate seat by a wide margin, and for Derek Schmidt to be the GOP nominee for governor over Kincaid Farmer Arlyn Briggs by a margin of 76% to 24%.
Likewise, 70% of Allen County’s Republicans voted for Jim Porter to keep his Kansas State Board of Education seat over challenger Luke Aichele’s 30%.
Allen County Republicans differed from statewide votes in the secretary of state race, picking challenger Mike Brown over incumbent Scott Schwab by a 54-46 margin. Statewide, Schwab won with a 55-45 margin.
And while an overwhelming number of Allen County Republicans supported State Sen. Caryn Tyson’s bid to be the next state treasurer, 72% to Steven Johnson’s 28%, the statewide vote remains too close to call. As of this morning, Johnson leads Tyson by 765 votes out of more than 426,000 cast, a margin of 50.08% to 49.92%.
THERE WERE only two contested races for Democratic voters to decide Tuesday. Gov. Laura Kelly earned more than 91% of the vote against challenger Richard Karnowski to earn her party’s nomination in November’s general election.
Statewide, Mark Holland secured the Democratic nomination to take on Moran in November, earning 38% of the vote in a six-way race, 18 points clear of his nearest pursuer in Paul Buskirk. In Allen County, Buskirk leads Holland, 199 votes to Holland’s 191, or about 30% of the total to Holland’s 29%.
THE ABORTION amendment question ramped up interest in Tuesday’s primary vote.
Turnout in Allen County was at 43%, with 3,721 of the county’s 8,644 registered voters casting ballots.
