One of Kansas’ largest counties misspells pregnancy on abortion ballot question
As Kansans vote on whether to remove abortion rights from the state constitution, ballots in the state’s second-most populous county twice misspell words, including “pregnancy.”
All ballots in Sedgwick County, which includes Wichita, contain the misspellings, Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Angela Caudillo confirmed in a statement.
The county of more than 515,000 people is a central battleground in the fight over the constitutional amendment, called Value Them Both by supporters, that would add a provision to the Kansas Constitution that says no right to abortion exists in the state. If approved by voters on Aug. 2, the amendment would overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court decision that currently protects access to the procedure.
Sedgwick County’s ballots include the misspellings of the words “pregnancy” and “circumstances” in the amendment text.
The amendment, as printed on the ballot, says legislators “may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnacy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstnces of necessity to save the life of the mother.”
Caudillo said the misspellings don’t affect the validity of the ballots.
“Our Sedgwick County Election Office was made aware of two typos on our August 2nd ballots after they were sent to the printer. In each case, it’s simply a missing letter in a word,” Caudillo said.
“The error does not change the meaning of the ballot question or its intent, but the typos will appear on all ballots, printed and electronic, in Sedgwick County. Kansas law provides that administrative errors may not be the basis for overturning elections.”
Caudillo said the Sedgwick County Election Office is looking for ways to ensure a similar error doesn’t happen again.
Whitney Tempel, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office, said it wasn’t aware of any other misspellings elsewhere. She also said the ballots will count, saying “voter intent governs” in the situation.
The typos have drawn attention on social media after advance voting began earlier this month. But they have also underscored concerns that the wording of the amendment, which was approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2021, is confusing.
The amendment’s wording explicitly gives the Legislature the power to pass laws about abortion related to rape and incest or to protect the life of the mother. But it doesn’t require it to —nor does it require those laws to protect access to abortion in those cases.
Because the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the federal right to abortion, Kansas lawmakers will have the power to ban abortion if the amendment passes.
The vote on the amendment is expected to be close. Last week, Kansas City-based pollster co/efficient released the first public poll data in the contest, finding 47% of respondents plan to vote yes and 43% plan to vote no. 10% were undecided and the poll had a margin of error of 2.78%.
The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed reporting
This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 1:15 PM with the headline "One of Kansas’ largest counties misspells pregnancy on abortion ballot question."
