Johnson County’s vote totals for this year’s municipal and school elections were certified Thursday and with the exception of the race for Spring Hill mayor there were no upsets or changes from the unofficial final results posted last Tuesday on election night.
A few races in western and southwestern Johnson County were close, but once provisional ballots and write-ins were counted, the top vote getters remained the same.
In De Soto, two-term Mayor Rick Walker retained his lead over current council president Robert Daniels for mayor, 770-754, winning a third term.
In a five-person race for two at-large Gardner City Council seats, Kelly Johnson, with 1,369 votes, and incumbent Councilmember Mark Baldwin, with 1,252 votes, came out on top, nosing out third-place finisher and incumbent Steve Shute, who finished with 1,246 votes.
A unique situation in Spring Hill
The top vote getter in Johnson County for Spring Hill Mayor changed once write-in votes were tallied.
Kristin Feeback was the only name on the ballot in that contest, receiving 169 votes on the official count.
But Feeback had announced earlier this summer she would be moving out of the city next year and would not accept the job if elected. That prompted concerted write-in campaigns from current City Council President Chad Young and Rodolfo Arevalo.
When write-ins were counted Thursday, Young had the top total with 534 votes to Rodolfo Arevalo’s 270.
However, it’s still too early to say who won.
Spring Hill straddles the Johnson-Miami county line, and Miami County votes won’t be certified until Monday. According to the Miami County election website, there were 364 write-in votes cast in that county for the mayoral race.
Other races waiting Miami County certification
A few other races also need certification in multiple counties in order to declare official final winners.
Miami Countians also vote in the Gardner Edgerton school board races, and the Eudora and Wellsville school districts also include neighboring counties, said Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman.
The Johnson County vote canvass only certifies votes cast within this county. It’s usually up to the cities and school boards to add the totals from all their counties and announce official winners, he said.
Coin flips fill out drainage district seats
County commissioners flipped a coin to determine who will be on the board that manages the Monticello Drainage District.
Peter Adams and Roman Adams were tied with one vote each for one of three spots on that board.
Peter Adams won the toss, joining Latoya Adams, who received two write-in votes on the board.
Keith Klemme, whose name was the only one on the ballot, was the third winner in the election for that body.
Mail-in grace period rule could be changing
Commissioners also noted that 445 mailed ballots were received and counted during the three-day grace period after Election Day. The grace period applies to ballots that were postmarked by Election Day but arrived up to three days afterwards.
However, that grace period may be going away next year.
The Kansas Legislature voted to require all mailed ballots to be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to count.
Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick suggested voter education is needed. Such a big number of late ballots has the potential to change some outcomes, she said.
“It’s certainly something we want to look at given we have 445 folks that were able to vote this time but those votes wouldn’t be counted next year,” she said.
That legislation is in court, Sherman said.
Sixty-five mailed ballots were not counted for various reasons, including late or missing postmarks or late arrival.
Turnout ended up being 25%, with 116,400 ballots cast.
That’s roughly in line with the last two odd-year local elections. In 2023, turnout was 26.74% and was 25.27% in 2021.
