Johnson County election workers began hand-counting about 125,000 ballots Monday, Nov. 9, in what Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt called the biggest audit Kansas has done.

The count is taking place at the Johnson County Election Office, 2101 E. Kansas City Road, in Olathe. It is open to the public for observation. The audit covers five of the six statewide races that triggered close-race audits after the Nov. 3 general election, KCTV5 reported.

Under Kansas law, any federal, state or state legislative race that finishes within 1% of the total votes cast requires a hand count of ballots in 10% of precincts. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced Nov. 4 that six races statewide met that threshold.

Five involve Johnson County voters: governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Kansas House District 27 and Kansas House District 117.

The governor's race between Democrat Cindy Holscher and Republican Ty Masterson was separated by just under 8,000 votes statewide as of Nov. 10, according to the Kansas City Star. The secretary of state and attorney general contests also fell within 1%.

How the count works

About 190 people staffed the audit operation, including roughly 120 who were counting ballots in the audit room, Schmidt told KCTV5. Counters are paired in bipartisan teams of two, and all are sworn election workers who take an oath of office.

To choose which precincts to review, the office placed folded slips of paper bearing precinct numbers into a bucket, according to KCTV5. Staff pulled 60 slips for the governor's race, put them back, then repeated the draw for the secretary of state contest and again for the attorney general race. The three rounds produced about 168 precincts in all.

Once a team is assigned a precinct, it tallies the relevant race by hand from that precinct's paper ballots, KCTV5 reported. A table monitor then compares the hand total to the machine-tabulated result. Any mismatch sends the team back for a second count.

Almost 300,000 ballots were cast in Johnson County, Schmidt said. The 125,000 ballots being counted are roughly 42% of that total. Workers sorted ballots by precinct before the audit began. Wyandotte County, by comparison, finished its audit Monday afternoon, according to KCTV5.

Tight timeline

The Johnson County Election Office moved the audit up a day, from Tuesday, Nov. 10, to Monday, Nov. 9, because of the expanded workload, according to a county news release. The close-race audit is in addition to the routine post-election audit Kansas law already requires.

As of Nov. 9, Schmidt said she expected counting to wrap up by the evening of Nov. 10 and said it could continue into Wednesday. The Nov. 9 report did not establish when counting was completed.

"We have to get it done in a very small window before the canvass," Schmidt said, according to KCTV5.

The audit is not a recount. Schmidt said a recount can be requested after the state finalizes numbers. If one is requested, Johnson County would start counting Nov. 18.

The State Board of Canvassers must certify results for all of Kansas by Dec. 1. Official results will be posted on the Secretary of State's website after that meeting.

The county canvass is scheduled for the morning of Nov. 13, when county commissioners will certify Johnson County's results.