Johnson County election commissioner resigns after lawsuits and delayed results
Ronnie Metsker, the Johnson County election commissioner who was at the center of extended delays in election results in 2018, has resigned, according to the Kansas Secretary of State.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab issued a statement Thursday announcing his office had accepted Metsker’s resignation. Metsker was the county’s top election official.
“Under his management, the Johnson County Election Office oversaw a new era of election administration with modern technology and the implementation of a new voting system,” Schwab said in the statement. “We are grateful for his service and leadership and wish him well on his future endeavors.”
The county’s election office will be “jointly managed” by county employees and supervised by the Secretary of State’s office until Metsker’s replacement is named, the statement said.
In a separate release Thursday, the office announced that applications for the position will be accepted.
A six-member search committee including state and county officials was appointed to interview candidates who must apply by Jan. 6.
The Johnson County Elections office referred questions to the Secretary of State’s office.
Metsker has been the county’s top election official since 2016 after he resigned as chairman of the Johnson County Republican Party.
Metsker came under fire in August 2018 after an all-night delay in releasing primary election results. Metzger blamed the delay on computer problems with new election machines and long lines at the polls.
The 2018 delay was preceded by delays in results in the November 2016 election. At the time, officials attributed the problem to old, outdated machines.
The new system, which Metsker had advocated for the previous May, cost the county $10.5 million.
His office also faced scrutiny in the subsequent recount of the Republican primary in the gubernatorial race between former governor Jeff Colyer and former Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Colyer eventually conceded the election but first his attorneys sent the county a letter demanding 150 ballots be counted that were thrown out because the signature did not match the voter’s registration record.
Metsker was involved in in two separate lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union related to that election.
One, filed in September 2018, demanded his office release the names of voters whose ballots were rejected based on signatures.
The other, filed in June, argued a Kansas law providing a 250-foot “buffer zone” to ban electioneering near polling places allowed Metsker to enforce a policy unconstitutionally banning all political speech in those areas.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 10:17 AM.
