Voter turnout, glitches result
in wait for election tallies

Wayne White | Managing Editor

LYNDON—High voter turnout, new software, and machinery glitches led to Osage County being the sixth to last county in the state to complete vote counts in last week’s election, according to Osage County Clerk Rhonda Beets. Final tallies were completed around 2:30 in the morning after Election Day.

Beets said that several counting machines malfunctioned during the day, with the first trouble at a Lyndon polling place where a paper jam caused a machine to quit working. With that machine repaired, the next trouble came late in the afternoon with two machines – one at Quenemo and another at Michigan Valley.

“[The machines] said they had too many ballots,” Beets said, even though the machines were not full. “The ballots that came in after that had to be hand counted.”

Minor issues were also corrected in a machine at Scranton.

Beets said new balloting software was installed after the primary election, which in part caused delay due to election officials double-checking results.

As explained by Beets, election workers entered data from the balloting machines into dual spreadsheets to check the accuracy of the system. That procedure took time, but was necessary to ensure the results were correct, Beets said.

One of the new software systems cost $25,000, but the state paid all but $1,500 of the cost. The software programs ballots and machines, and eliminated the need for the county to hire an outside vendor to do the programming. Beets attended a weeklong training session to learn to use the software.

“I think we got our $1,500 worth out of that software,” Beets said.

Although the double-checking procedure took longer, she said the same procedure will likely be used in the future regardless of whether newer systems are utilized.

She said accuracy of the vote is her main goal in the counting process, despite how long it takes.

“The worst thing we can do is put out wrong results,” she said. “It has to be right.”

Another factor that slowed counting was the number of voters. In all, 7,713 ballots were cast, representing 72 percent of registered voters in the county. Advanced voting produced 949 ballots, adding to time needed for counting after the polls closed.

County commissioners met in special session Friday to canvass the votes. Provisional ballots – those questioned due to voter registration discrepancies or those that required determination of the intent of write-in votes – were reviewed by the commission. Of 190 provisional ballots, 112 were rejected. The remaining 78 votes did not change the results of any races.

While write-in results were not available after the early morning vote tallies, only one publicized write-in candidate garnered significant votes. In the sheriff’s race, Osage County Sheriff Laurie Dunn, who was listed on the ballot, received a total of 5,842 votes, compared to 380 votes for write-in candidate Robert Gregory. Write-in votes also elected two officials in Scranton Township, where no township candidates were listed on the ballot; Ed Hug was elected as treasurer and Paul Schmidt was elected as trustee.

Candidates and well-wishers gathered at the courthouse on election night, but most gave up their wait around midnight, according to several of those present. Beets said she locked the doors to her office and workers went home around 2:30 a.m. At about that same time, an election result Web site maintained by Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh showed all of Osage County’s precincts had reported results. At that time, five other counties in Kansas had not reported final tallies.