Hanzlick, Xu and Benson prevail in close JoCo races

The Johnson County Election Office certified its election results Thursday, providing some answers for three races that remained too close to call after the Nov. 6 election night.

With the official count of all ballots, including provisional ballots, challenger Janeé Hanzlick defeated incumbent Jason Osterhaus in the 4th District Johnson County Commission race. Hanzlick had 21,261 votes to 21,083 for Osterhaus.

“I’m so grateful to those who supported me, who really invested in a dream of a better Johnson County,” Hanzlick said.

Osterhaus has until 5 p.m. Friday to request a recount. He could not be reached to comment about whether he will seek a recount.

If there is no recount, these results mean there will be two new women on the seven-member Johnson County Commission, the first women to serve there since 2010.

Four county commission seats were up for election. Ed Eilert was re-elected Commission chairman, defeating challenger Trinette Waldrup. Becky Fast defeated incumbent Ron Shaffer in District 1. And incumbent Michael Ashcraft defeated challenger LeEtta Felter in District 5.

Two Kansas House races were also too close to call after election night.

Certified results Thursday showed that Rui Xu, the Democratic challenger, defeated Republican incumbent Melissa Rooker, for the District 25 House seat representing northeast Johnson County. Xu had 6,637 votes to 6,516 for Rooker.

Rooker said she would not request a recount.

Democrat David Benson defeated Republican Abraham Rafie in the District 48 House race to represent southern Overland Park. Benson had 5,413 votes to Rafie’s 5,331. Rafie could not be reached about whether he plans to seek a recount.

The election was historic for several reasons, Johnson County Election Commissioner Ronnie Metsker told the Board of Canvassers. He said the county had an all-time record of registered voters for the November election, at 419,403. And the election office counted 272,231 ballots cast, for a turnout of just under 65 percent, which was a record turnout for a Kansas state gubernatorial election.