By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission canvassed the results on the 2018 August primary election in a special meeting Thursday.
According to Ellis County Clerk and Election Officer Donna Maskus there were 36 provisional ballots cast in the August 7 Primary Election. Thirty-three of them were counted and added to the vote totals in Ellis County during the almost two hour process Thursday.
Maskus said the three people whose ballots were not counted were not registered to vote in Ellis County.
The largest reason voters were given a provisional ballot was because they changed their address and did not re-register.
Thursday two Canvass Boards made up of three people each finished counting the provisional ballots and advanced mail-in ballots.
The additional votes did not have an effect on the outcome of any of the contested races.
In the Republican race for Ellis County Commission 1st District Butch Schlyer received six additional provisional votes and one vote from an advanced mail-in ballot. His opponent, incumbent Marcy McClelland received one additional provisional vote.
The additional votes bring the final vote total to 642 to 283 in favor of Schlyer.
In the closely contested race for the Republican nominee for Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer and Tracey Mann received 871 more votes in Ellis County, than Secretary of State Kris Kobach and running mate Wink Hartman.
The official tally was 1,748 for Colyer and 877 for Kobach.
Kobach defeated Colyer after he conceded the race earlier this week.
In the race to replace Kobach as Secretary of State Republican candidate Scott Schwab outgained Randy Duncan in the statewide race by more than 50,000 (107,498 to 56,564) votes. But in Ellis County Schwab edged Duncan by just 134 votes (998 to 864).
On the Democratic ticket for Governor in Ellis County Laura Kelley edged Joshua Svaty by 103 votes and Carl Brewer came in third with 187. Statewide Kelley collected 79,301 votes and Brewer got 30,885 votes to finish second. Svaty was a distant third.
Turnout was 24 percent. Better than the 18 percent in 2014 and 15 percent in 2012.
Commissioner Barb Wasinger was not at Thursday’s meeting. She appointed Mike Morley to fill in for her. Morley left partway through the meeting and County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes took his spot on the commission for the canvass.
The commission approved the canvass 3-0.