Thellman hangs on to lead by just 6 votes in County Commission race; result still not official

photo by: Contributed photo

Nancy Thellman

Updated at 3:40 p.m. Friday

The race for the Douglas County Commission 2nd District has reached an unofficial end with incumbent Nancy Thellman holding on to her seat by just a few votes.

In the final tally released Friday, Thellman finished with just six more votes than Democratic challenger Shannon Reid.

Thellman, who is running for a fourth term as 2nd District representative, received 2,301 votes, while Reid has received 2,295, giving each of them about 37% of all ballots cast. Sara Taliaferro, the third candidate in the race, finished with 1,519 votes, for just under 25%.

The last mail ballots were counted on Friday. However, Thellman’s win is not yet official as the votes still need to be canvassed and certified, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, Aug. 17. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew told the Journal-World there are also about 600 provisional ballots countywide that have not yet been counted, and those could be added during the canvassing process.

Additionally, the candidates can request a recount of the votes, which must be initiated by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18. Unlike some other states, Kansas does not have a law that mandates recounts when races are close, so a candidate must request the recount, Shew said.

Both Thellman and Reid told the Journal-World Tuesday night that they thought the race would come down to the wire.

Along with the Democratic primary winner, a Republican will appear on the November general election ballot for the 2nd District seat — Brett LaRue — but he previously told the Journal-World that he was not actively campaigning for the seat, and he also endorsed Thellman in the race.

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