‘I cannot explain it’: Hand recount shows drop in votes in S.E. Kansas county commission race

The official results of a hand recount for the District 3 Crawford County Commission race show Democrat Jeremy Johnson defeating Republican Chad Ulepich by a margin of 25 votes.

It was a much different scene on Friday when the Crawford County Board of Canvassers met to carry out their duties on the results of Thursday’s hand recount of the District 3 Crawford County Commission and District 2 Kansas State Representative races, The Pittsburg Morning Sun reported.

The room that was packed to capacity for Tuesday’s canvass was practically empty and neither candidate was present.

“It was a lengthy process,” County Clerk Don Pyle said. “Counting by hand is not an exact science. We had to recount some precincts five or six times to settle on a number.”

These numbers settled the mercurial results of the District 3 Crawford County Commission race. After the hand recount and second canvass, the results found Johnson defeated Ulepich 1,648 to 1,623, a difference of 25 votes. The total recounted ballots were noticeably lower than those from the first canvass, which put Johnson up 1,652 votes to 1,630.

Vic Miller, an election lawyer hired by the commission to oversee the first canvass and subsequent recount, said he was perplexed by the drop in votes.

“That’s the one thing I can’t explain,” he said, “why both of them lost a handful of ballots. Without in depth research, I cannot explain it. The good news is that the margin was similar in both instances.”