Canvassers to certify 3rd District

Douglas County may provide swing vote in narrow Republican race

Kris Kobach and Adam Taff, locked in a statistical tie in a race for their political lives, will be counting on three Douglas County residents for help this morning.

Jere McElhaney, Dean Nieder and Sue Neustifter are scheduled to convene at 9 a.m. as the county’s Board of Canvassers. Their task: Certify results from Tuesday’s primary elections, after ruling which provisional ballots should be counted.

Such ballots could make the difference between winning and losing for Kobach and Taff, Republicans vying for their party’s nomination for the 3rd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district covers all of Johnson and Wyandotte counties, plus portions of east Lawrence and eastern Douglas County.

“It’s a big-time race with big-time implications,” said McElhaney, a Douglas County commissioner. “It means a lot to the U.S. Congress; it’s a pivotal seat. And Douglas County might be the swing vote.

“We’ll be on our toes, we’ll be sharp, we’ll do it right and we’ll see how the results come out.”

Kobach’s lead over Taff now stands at 87 votes, with at least 3,600 provisional ballots waiting to be considered in the three counties. The winner will move on to face incumbent Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., in the general election Nov. 2.

Provisional ballots are filled out on election day but are set aside in sealed envelopes, usually because a voter has moved or changed names since the last election.

In Douglas County, elections officials say 118 provisional ballots were cast by Republicans in the 3rd District. Another 2,979 ballots — both Republican and Democrat — were cast in Johnson County, which will review and certify its results Monday morning. Another 600 provisional ballots await consideration in Wyandotte County, whose canvassers meet at 9 a.m. today.

Canvassers in each county decide which provisional ballots are counted, after taking advice from county elections officials and the Kansas secretary of state.

In Douglas County, the canvassers are McElhaney, a Republican; Nieder, a Republican who is a former county commissioner; and Neustifter, a Democrat who spent 30 years as the county’s register of deeds before retiring two years ago.

video 6News video: Canvassers will consider provisional ballot votestext Primary election results; multimedia, stories and photos from election night and a precint-by-precinct vote breakdown of Douglas County

After winning nine elections herself and working as a poll judge, vote-counter and transcriber of write-in votes, Neustifter knows what the candidates are enduring. She recalls one race settled by the flip of a coin, after the results came up deadlocked.

“I feel for them. I really do,” Neustifter said. “It could be very nerve wracking for them, but I feel fine. I know that everything will work out.”

About 300 voters cast provisional ballots during Tuesday’s primary elections in Douglas County, including 118 Republican ballots in the 3rd District for the U.S. House of Representatives.Douglas County’s Board of Canvassers meets this morning to decide which ballots get counted, and which get discarded.Typically, such ballots are counted if the voters changed addresses or names since the last election, said Marni Penrod, deputy county clerk for elections.Ballots typically are not counted if the voter was not registered to vote.Voters forced to cast provisional ballots because they lacked proper identification at the polls — such as a driver’s license, bank statement, utility bill, government check or other government document showing a name and proper address — have until 9 a.m. today to prove their identities to elections officials. Otherwise, their votes will not be counted.Voters can take their identification materials to the County Clerk’s Office at the county courthouse, 1100 Mass.Identification materials may be faxed to the clerk’s office at 832-5192, or scanned electronically and e-mailed to jdalquest@douglas-county.com.