Activist offers to pay for Kansas' recount of abortion vote

ABC NEWS ^ | August 14, 2022 | ap

[Morgana]

TOPEKA, Kan. -- An anti-abortion activist who heads a small hard-right Republican group said he’s offered to pay the expected $229,000 cost of a hand recount of votes from every Kansas county after a decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights.

Mark Gietzen, who leads the group Kansas Republican Assembly, told the Kansas City Star he wants to pay for the recount that Melissa Leavitt, of Colby, requested because he believes it could change the outcome. The 165,000-vote difference in the election makes that unlikely, however.

Gietzen said fundraising and his own money would be used. The Kansas Republican Assembly is significantly to the right of the state Republican Party and isn't affiliated with the GOP-led legislature.

There has been no evidence of significant problems with the election. Baseless election conspiracies have circulated widely in the U.S., particularly among supporters of former President Donald Trump, who has repeated false claims that he lost the 2020 election through fraud.

Kansas law requires that a bond be posted to cover the cost of the recount and if the recount changes the outcome, the money will be refunded.

A spokeswoman for the Kansas Secretary of State's Office, Whitney Tempel, said Friday that Leavitt had posted a $200,000 bond, but Leavitt said in updates posed to TikTok over the weekend that the bond had not been paid yet and fundraising was ongoing. Tempel didn't immediately respond to messages from the newspaper and The Associated Press.

Leavitt said in a video posted to TikTok on Sunday morning that there was 24 hours left to raise money for the effort.

[KC_Conspirator]

Waste of time and a distraction from November real issues.

[Right Brother]

Should had invested money into getting a better author(s) for the poorly written referendum.

[j.havenfarm]

Oh, amen FRiend. I’m from CA, the home of the confusing referendum. The KS referendum was by far the worst I’ve ever seen. That educated people thought putting that word jumble on the ballot was a good idea is mind wobbling.

[Coronal]

WTF will that accomplish? The referendum lost by a double digit margin.

[fwdude]

What good will recounting fake ballots do?

[fwdude]

It was a direly needed referendum, but it would have been strategically sound to hold the vote a year out, away from the lying noise of the left in the immediate wake of the Dobbs decision. After things had calmed down would have been a much better time and chance to let cool heads prevail.