and DAVE BERGMEIER
Problems with counting ballots in Dickinson County and power outages in Geary County delayed the release of vote totals for several hours following the closing of the polls for Tuesday's primary election.
Dickinson County election officer Barbara Jones released the election total at 2:09 a.m. Wednesday after a counting machine failure occurred as ballots were being counted Tuesday night.
"A sensor in a counting machine went out," she said, adding the technician that repaired the machine had to travel two hours to Abilene, then spent time replacing many parts before the machine was working again.
The technician traveled from Pratt.
“Once we got it fixed it went quickly,” she said.
It was not the only delay in polling results reported in the area. Geary County did not finish counting their ballots until 11:30 p.m. Tuesday after a power outage.
The outage, which affected some areas of Junction City, left up to 1,700 residents without electricity for up to two hours.
Geary County election officer Rebecca Bossemeyer said “brownouts” prior to the outage had been affecting their equipment. She said after the power went out, she and staff members waited for a time to see if the power would come back on, before calling Gary Burgess, the county’s emergency management director, for help.
He told her the possibility of outages would continue and said it was time to implement their backup plan.
Bossemeyer said they were in the process of bringing their counting equipment to the emergency management office, which had backup generator power, when power was restored at the county clerk's office.
She said the delay made for a long night.
“This was not what we needed,” she said.
Dickinson turnout
Voter turnout in Dickinson County was estimated at about 30 percent. Dickinson County has 12,509 registered voters, Jones said. The number of ballots cast was 3,522, plus there were 550 advanced and 66 provisional ballots.
“I was really pleased,” she said. “Most of the polling places had a good steady turnout throughout the day.”
She said the hotly contested U.S. Senate between Reps. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, attracted a lot of local voter interest as did the Kansas House races for the 68th District and 64th District. Moran prevailed in the county and statewide. In the 68th District, incumbent Tom Moxley defeated Cal Seadeek Jr., both of Council Grove. The 68th District includes Abilene, Herington, Hope and Enterprise. In the 64th District incumbent Vernon Swanson survived a challenge from Mike Musselman. Both men are from Clay Center.
“I think those races generated a lot of interest,” Jones said.
Voting results
Dickinson County voters cast their ballots in several key state races.
Totals are unofficial until counties canvass their votes later this week. Local results include:
U.S. Senate -- Republican candidates: Jerry Moran, 1,943; Todd Tiahrt, 1,027; Tom Little, 88; Robert Londerholm, 48. Democratic candidates: Lisa Johnston, 121; Charles Schollenberger, 89; Patrick Wiesner, 74; David Haley, 46; Robert A. Conroy, 16. Johnston won the Democratic nomination.
U.S. House of Representatives -- District 1: Republican candidates: Tim Huelskamp, 800; Tracey Mann, 796; Jim Barnett, 769; Rob Wasinger, 508; Sue Boldra, 157; Marck Cobb, 45. Huelskamp won the Republican nomination. Democrat Alan Jilka, a former Salina mayor and businessman ran unopposed and got 332 votes.
Governor -- Sam Brownback easily won in Dickinson County and statewide for the Republican nomination. Brownback had 2,397 votes in Dickinson County compared to Joan Heffington with 611. Brownback will face Democrat Tom Holland, who picked up 326 votes in Dickinson County, in the November general election.
Kansas House of Representatives -- District 64: Vern Swanson, Republican, 218; Michael Musselman, 181. District wide: Swanson, 1553; Musselman, 1,236.
Kansas House of Representatives -- District 68: Tom J. Moxley, Republican, 1,582, Calvin Seadeek, 664. District wide: Moxley, 2,366; Seadeek, 1,059.
In the race for secretary of state, Dickinson County voters differed with their counterparts across Kansas in the GOP primary. Kris Kobach won statewide but was second in Dickinson County with 914 votes. J.R. Claeys, from nearby Salina, captured 1,391 votes. Elizabeth “Libby” Ensley was third with 619 votes. Ensley was second in the state. In the Democratic primary, Chris Biggs garnered 326 votes and Chris Steineger had 51 votes. Biggs won the state primary.
In the race for insurance commissioner, Sandy Praeger, the incumbent, picked up 2,093 votes compared to her primary challenger David Powell, who had 871 votes. Praeger won the primary statewide and has no Democratic challenger in November.
Dickinson County voters supported Ralph DeZago, the Herington attorney who sought the GOP nomination for attorney general. DeZago had 1,504 votes. The statewide winner, Derek Schmidt, had 1,286 votes. Schmidt will face current AG Steven Six, a Democrat, who had 346 votes.
In the race for state board of education, District 7, incumbent Kenneth Willard garnered 832 votes compared to M.T. Liggett who had 554 votes. Willard won the GOP nomination. He is unopposed in the November general election.
In Dickinson County, candidates for the District 1 commission seat ran unopposed in Tuesday's primary but will face each other in the November general election. Incumbent Everett Kolling, of Herington, a Democrat, received 122 votes. LaVerne Myers, of rural Abilene, a Republican, received 729 votes.