Kris Kobach’s narrow lead in the race to challenge U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore got a bit narrower Friday.

Kobach led Adam Taff by 87 votes in preliminary returns after Tuesday’s Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District. But after Wyandotte and Douglas counties tallied their provisional ballots Friday, Kobach’s lead shrunk to 81 votes out of more than 87,100 cast.

The outcome of the race won’t be known at least until Monday, when Johnson County deals with the 2,979 provisional ballots cast there.

“We were pleased,” Taff said. “We thought it was likely we might actually lose some ground in Wyandotte County and possibly Douglas County. The fact we gained votes was a nice turn of events for us.”

But, he added: “The real mystery remains on Monday.”

Wyandotte County added 244 provisional ballots and Douglas County added 69. Taff had net gains of five votes in Wyandotte County and one in Douglas County after the ballots were counted.

County by county

Provisional ballots are cast on election day but set aside in sealed envelopes because of questions of eligibility. Examples include voters who have moved, changed names or reported to the wrong polling location.

Despite losing ground, Kobach supporters said they were confident going into Monday.

“It’s going pretty much as we anticipated,” said Christian Morgan, Kobach’s finance director. “You always prefer to go up, but we’re still pleased with where we are.”

On Tuesday night, Kobach carried both Douglas and Wyandotte counties, but Taff prevailed in Johnson County, which provided nearly 90 percent of the votes cast.

After Friday’s canvassing, Kobach had received 2,383 votes in Wyandotte County, Taff received 2,211 and Patricia Lightner, a third Republican, received 630.

Douglas County election officials, from left, Jo Dalquest, Patty Jaimes, Dean Nieder, Sue Neustifter and Jere McElhaney, look over primary election voting records Friday at the Douglas County Courthouse.

In Douglas County, Kobach received 1,702, Taff received 1,602 and Lightner received 816.

Johnson County’s preliminary results Tuesday showed Taff with 34,367 votes, Kobach with 34,176 and Lightner with 9,216.

Observers on hand

The Kobach-Taff split highlighted the division between conservative and moderate Republicans in Kansas. Kobach portrayed himself as the conservative candidate and Taff, the 2002 GOP nominee, had the backing of moderates.

Supporters of both Kobach, a law professor, and Taff, a former Navy fighter pilot, were on hand at the Douglas County Courthouse to watch the Douglas County Board of Canvassers certify the election results. A Taff representative videotaped much of the meeting, and Scott Poor, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, was there part of the day.

The canvassers were Jere McElhaney, a Republican and Douglas County commissioner; Dean Nieder, a Republican who is a former county commissioner; and Sue Neustifter, a Democrat who spent 30 years as the county’s register of deeds until retiring two years ago.

The three-hour process involved examining precinct books from each polling site and determining which groups of provisional ballots to count. For example, voters with address changes or name changes were counted, while those who attempted to change political parties on election day were not.

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So far, so good

Then, election workers had to count the ballots that would be allowed, with an announcement of results coming late Friday afternoon.

“I know both sides were certainly interested,” said Patty Jaimes, Douglas County clerk. “I certainly understand that, being an elected official myself.”

Jaimes said she was confident in the results.

The only mistake, which was not correctable, was one Democrat attempted to switch to the Republican Party on Tuesday and completed a Republican primary provisional ballot. Election workers accidentally allowed the voter to put the provisional ballot in the ballot box, instead of having it placed in an envelope.

Because the vote had already been tallied with the others from Tuesday, there was nothing that could be done to remove it from the totals, she said.

Representatives from both campaigns said they were confident the results were correct.

Johnson County

Johnson County election officials plan to announce the results of their provisional ballot tally about 5 p.m. Monday. Taff said it was too early to determine whether he would request a recount of the total vote, but didn’t rule out that possibility.

“I hope it’s not necessary,” he said. “I’d like for us to have some resolution on this.”

Kobach’s spokesman, meanwhile, said the campaign was working on its next phase against Moore, a Democrat who has served since 1999.

“We’re really focusing on challenging Dennis Moore,” he said, “and we want to move on.”

The general election is Nov. 2.