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Canvassers recommend counting 15 of 19 provisional ballots, Geary County clerk says
Summary
Geary County canvass board reviewed 19 provisional ballots and recommended accepting 15 and rejecting four; the board voted to adopt the clerk’s recommendation and unsealed ballots for tabulation.
County election workers recommended that Geary County count 15 of 19 provisional ballots during a canvass conducted before county commissioners this morning, County Clerk Gilbert Garrett said.
The recommendation matters because provisional ballots can affect close local contests. Clerk Gilbert Garrett told the commissioners the board followed guidance from the Secretary of State’s office in reviewing each provisional ballot.
Garrett said the board recommended counting 10 ballots from registered voters who had moved within the county but not updated their address; three ballots where staff located the voter in the poll book; one ballot where a voter’s name differed from the poll book and the voter completed a new registration at the polling place; and one ballot cast in the wrong precinct but inside Geary County. “So out of 19, we recommend 15 count and 4 not count,” Garrett said.
The four ballots the board recommended excluding included three individuals who were not registered before Election Day and one person who had already voted an in-person advance ballot and then attempted to vote again at a polling place.
A motion to adopt the clerk’s recommendation passed; commissioners then unsealed the provisional ballots and directed staff to run them through the tabulator. Clerk Garrett said staff would bring the tabulator results back and enter any changes into the county election software to produce new official results.
Brief discussion during the meeting also touched on mailings and packet deliveries for election materials; one participant said they had received some packets late and staff explained the county uses a vendor for mailing.
No statutory citations or contest-specific race outcomes were announced during the canvass; Garrett said the board used the Secretary of State’s provisional ballot standards to guide counting decisions and will report updated totals after tabulation.
