Election now goes to Commissioners for canvass of the votes

Whether the April 2 election ballots will be recounted for the Fort Scott Board of Trustees has yet to be determined.

That's not a decision to be made by Bourbon County Clerk Kendell Mason, she said on Wednesday.

John Kerr barely got hold of a seat on the board, beating out Randall Readinger by nine votes. Kerr received 706 votes and Readinger had 697.

Also winning seats on the board were John Bartelsmeyer with 843 votes and Richard Hedges with 745.

According to Kansas state statute 25-3107, the Bourbon County Commissioners, who will canvass the votes on Monday, April 8, may call for ballots to be recounted if "they discover manifest errors appearing on the face of the poll books of any election board, which might make a difference in the result of any election."

A candidate or a voter also may request a recount.

Mason said she did not hear any complaints about voters' experiences at the polls. She was busy handling the logistics, but none of the poll workers reported any problems to her, she said.

"I thought it went well," Mason said.

Voter turnout is typically small for a spring election and this one drew 15 percent of Bourbon County's registered voters to the polls.

Mason said that because she was busy with the logistics side of the election, she did not have an opportunity to talk to a lot of people who voted to see how their election experience was. But she also did not receive any negative feedback from the poll workers.

The election won't become official until the commissioners canvass the ballots at 10 a.m. Monday.

"We had to do it when they were meeting," Mason said.

The state provides counties with two dates to canvass ballots so that the election results can be certified. This year, the choices are April 8 and 11. The commissioners meet on Mondays and Fridays.

While canvassing the ballots, the commissioners also will determine if they also will count the provisional ballots. Those are ballots that were provided to people who may have moved from one precinct, but did not change their address with the clerk's office in time for the election, according to Mason.