Fast wins special election for Roeland Park City Council

Voters in Roeland Park Ward 1 elected Becky Fast on Tuesday to replace a City Council member who resigned.

Complete but unofficial results show Fast with 70 votes or 59 percent. The other candidates were Stuart Speer with 36 percent and Max Haefele with 5 percent. Fast will take the seat vacated by Toni Hull and will serve through April 2015.

It was only the second election in Kansas since a new law required voters to show a photo ID. Turnout was light but election judges said Tuesday afternoon that everyone who showed up had a photo ID and no one complained about the new rule.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a proponent of the law, was at the Roeland Park Community Center polling place on Tuesday to see how things were going.

“So far no unforeseen circumstances have arisen,” Kobach said. “These early elections would give us a chance to address them before the bigger elections in the fall.”

The first election with the ID rule was last month in Cimarron in western Kansas. Kobach said one person there refused to show a photo ID and cast a provisional ballot in protest.

The next test of the new law will be Feb. 28 when Shawnee elects a mayor and Mission and Prairie Village elect council members. Wichita also holds an election that day.

Fast said during the campaign that her focus would be on the Roeland Park city budget, fiscal responsibility and increasing residents’ involvement in city decisions. The potential loss of Roeland Park’s Wal-Mart should spur the city into working harder to attract new business, she said before the election.

She is an in-home care provider for North Kansas City Hospital hospice.

This story was originally published February 14, 2012 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fast wins special election for Roeland Park City Council."