Johnson County Begins Hand-Count of 125,000 Ballots for Statewide Audits
Election workers in Olathe started a three-day manual verification of votes in five races that finished within one percentage point of each other.
By Ella Cox ·
Johnson County election workers began hand-counting approximately 125,000 paper ballots on Monday to verify results in five Kansas races that triggered mandatory audits. The process, which took place at the county election office in Olathe, represents the largest audit the state has conducted, according to Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt.
State law requires a manual audit when any contest finishes within one percentage point of the leading candidate. Secretary of State Scott Schwab identified six such races on November 4, including the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general positions. Johnson County is auditing ballots for the three statewide races plus two Kansas House seats, District 27 and District 40.
The manual count reviews ballots from 10% of precincts in each county. Schmidt noted that the county had never performed a close-race audit before, making the current volume of work a new operational challenge. To accommodate the expanded scope, the office shifted its post-election audit start date from Tuesday to Monday.
About 120 counters are working in the audit room, supported by a total staff of roughly 190. Schmidt said the counters operate in bipartisan pairs and are sworn election officials. The teams draw precinct numbers from a bucket to determine which ballots to review, a process that resulted in about 168 precincts being selected for the three statewide contests.
Each team receives a box of ballots, which may contain votes from early voting, Election Day, or mail-in ballots. The pair counts the votes by hand and reports the total to a table monitor. The monitor then compares the manual count to the machine-generated results. If the numbers do not match, the team recounts the ballots.
The county sorted nearly 300,000 total ballots by precinct before the audit began. Johnson County has 479,000 registered voters. The 125,000 ballots currently being counted represent roughly one-third of all votes cast in the county. Schmidt stated the goal is to confirm that the election night results are accurate by verifying that the physical paper ballots match the tabulated figures.
Schmidt expects the counting to conclude by Tuesday evening, though it may extend into Wednesday. The audit must be complete before the official election canvass scheduled for Friday morning, November 13. Results become official at that canvass. A separate recount may be requested later, which would begin on November 18 if necessary.
