14 August 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Weeks after the primary election, Shawnee County officials now know exactly how many people voted.
Primary elections across the state were on Aug. 1. In Topeka, a city council seat for District 6 was the only thing on the ballot. Nearly two weeks later, officials go over any ballots that may have not been as easy to count. On Monday, Aug. 14, Shawnee County commissioners and the election office tallied the official number of votes cast in the election.
They counted an official 899 votes casted in this year’s primary election. Marcus D. L. Miller received 439, Craig Dunstan received 230 votes, 144 votes were cast for Zachary Surritt and 86 for Bob Beers.
Even though these few ballots didn’t change the result, county officials say this is important to follow the numerous rules put in place to have a fair election.
“It’s important to know what the final numbers are and have a public document and a public process,” Andrew Howell, Shawnee County Election Commissioner said. “That’s what the law requires and it’s also part of the overall process for how you finalize and how you get to the numbers so that you know in fact who the top two vote getters were that you know that those two will be the two that go on to the general election.”
“Today we only had a couple ballots that weren’t going to change the results of the election, there’s just two ballots,” Bill Riphahn, Shawnee County Commissioner said. “And no one won by just one vote or something like that where it would make a difference. Occasionally, that can happen, so it’s important that we get these elections right.”
The general election is Nov. 1. Voters in District 6 will see Miller and Dunstan on the ballot. Seats for Districts 2, 4 and 8 will be up for election as well.