Even After Recount, Anti-Abortion Activists Will Keep Fighting Kansas Vote Results
By: Kelsey Butler
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Anti-abortion activists are calling for a second recount in a Kansas election that saw voters resoundingly reject an effort to allow new restrictions on abortion access. The move comes amid baseless conspiracy theories over voter fraud and underscores a growing movement on the right for election deniers to challenge results they don’t agree with.
Officials on Sunday finished a recount sought by Melissa Leavitt, an election conspiracy theorist who was advancing unfounded voter fraud allegations. The recount affirmed the results of the early August ballot, for which voters turned out in droves , the Kansas City Star reported .
Anti-abortion activist Mark Gietzen, who funded Leavitt’s recount push , confirmed to Bloomberg News on Monday that he plans to file a lawsuit Monday calling for a full statewide hand recount. Gietzen told the Star that he acknowledged the recount was unlikely to change the outcome of the election, but said it was part of an effort to search for fraud and he suggested he and his allies would be going door to door to confront voters.
The original ‘No’ vote tally on changing state Constitution was 534,134, or 58.8%. The ‘Yes’ votes totaled 374,611, or 41.2%, for the Aug. 2 election. The recount ultimately changed the outcome by fewer than 60 votes, the Star reported.
The election results keep intact a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that granted abortion rights under the state’s constitution and clear the way for courts to invalidate any abortion ban that the Republican-dominated legislature might advance. It was the first state-wide referendum on abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
This fall, voters will also weigh in on abortion rights in California, Kentucky, Montana and Vermont .
Kansas, which allows terminations up to 22 weeks, has long been a destination for abortion seekers coming from places with more restrictive laws. In 2019, nearly half of all those who received abortion care in the state were out-of-state residents, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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So the people have spoken yet it is not enough for these people. They will fight tooth and nail to get their way. It doesn't matter what anyone else wants.
I would like to see one of these MFers come to my door.
me too. oh, you want to meet geezus in person? is in the next 5 minutes soon enough? get off my property or wake up in the ER thumper.
Since the previous election, the whole concept of being a "good loser" or "graceful in defeat", has been thrown out the window with the republican party.
It is starting to seem like get what they want at any cost. Not even the voters matter to these people.
Not even the votes themselves matter to them.
crusader mentality...
Disgusting POS
hopefully they collected the recount money up front from the thumper trumpers.
I read several of them racked up credit card bills. I also read that if the recount fails, they don't get their money back...
Morons.
in colorado the Q-nut semen depository and disgraced county clerk tina peters coughed up over a quarter million for a recount of the primary she finished a distant 3rd in. she got her supporters to foot the bill.
Unfortunately, this is the New America, with New Rights for Some and Bad Laws For All
These people are a plague on humanity. They don’t care about fraud, or the law, or even truth. They just want what they want and they’ll do or say anything to get it.