BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The results of two Kansas legislative races that were too close to call on Election Day remained unchanged after an audit.
The day after the election, the two northeast Kansas races automatically triggered a close-race audit because the candidates in each contest were separated by fewer than 1% of votes cast.
In a Senate district encompassing parts of Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties, Republican Jeff Klemp triumphed over the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jeff Pittman, by just more than 40 votes.
In a Johnson County House seat, Rep. Nikki McDonald, the Democratic incumbent, defeated Republican challenger Kurtis Ruf by about 125 votes, results showed.
A close-race audit involves a recount of votes by hand in certain precincts and comparing that count to machine-tabulated totals. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced Thursday the completion of the two audits.
“The audit results confirmed the hand count matched the machine count in those three counties,” Whitney Tempel, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office, wrote in an email.