Gietzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life in Wichita and a prominent participant in anti-abortion protests in Wichita for more than 30 years, said he would pick up the torch of the recount effort launched by Colby resident Melissa Leavitt.
āThere are an abundance of resources to get this done,ā Gietzen said.
Gietzen also alleged ā without evidence ā the Kansas election earlier this month was distorted by āmassiveā election fraud through āballot harvesting.ā He asserted people illegally obtained, filled out and deposited ballots in drop boxes. He had filed a lawsuit in Sedgwick County before the August primary in an attempt to stop use of drop boxes, but it was tossed by a judge.
Gietzen said the recount of votes on the amendment in all 105 counties would be conducted āunless we get screwed over by the secretary of state.ā
Originally, Gietzen offered a credit card of a conservative political organization to leverage the recount. Leavitt later she was grateful Gietzen agreed to āput his home up for the recount,ā but encouraged others to continue donating to the cause.
Leavitt informed the Secretary of Stateās Office at 4 a.m. Monday that Gietzenās assets would be sufficient to cover a recount.
In a setback for the recount campaign, however, Leavitt was notified that she couldnāt rely on the value of Gietzenās home to finance the recount.
Under state law, the person requesting the recount must file a bond, approved by the secretary of state, guaranteeing payment of all costs incurred by counties conducting a recount.
Leavitt had until end of the business Monday to personally secure a pathway to $229,000 required to proceed with the challenge. Through an online fundraiser, Leavitt had received commitments of $29,900, or about 10% of the projected cost of the statewide review of ballots.
āFailure to do so will result in the recount request being cancelled,ā said Brian Caskey, director of elections for Secretary of State Scott Schwab.
In the alternative, Caskey said, Leavitt could amend her recount request to isolate the review to counties for which she could afford to pay the cost.
Ashley All, spokeswoman for the amendment opponent organization Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, said basis for the hypothetical recount was unclear.
āKansans across the political spectrum voted overwhelmingly against this amendment,ā All said. āIn fact, 165,000 more Kansans voted āno.ā They sent a clear message that they want to protect the constitutional rights of women to make private medical decisions for themselves.ā
Leavitt said she would continue to pray a miracle occurred in terms of advancing recount on the failed abortion amendment.
āWhat else can you do when you take a leap of faith? I donāt know,ā she said on a social media thread. āIām getting a lot of hate messages and stuff like that, but so far Iām doing OK and weāre going to keep pushing.ā
On Monday, officials in Johnson, Shawnee and Sedgwick counties worked to certify election election results. That included votes for and against the constitutional amendment, which was sought to nullify a decision by the Kansas Supreme Court that a right to abortion existed in the Kansas Constitution.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.