Conservative Johnson County school board candidate seeks recount after losing close race
Update: The candidate has now withdrawn his request for a recount, meaning the Nov. 7 election in Johnson County has officially come to a close, officials said Friday. Read that story here.
A Gardner Edgerton school board candidate, who ran as part of a conservative slate, has asked for a recount after Johnson County election results showed he lost by fewer than 40 votes.
According to official Johnson County results certified Wednesday, newcomer Allen Vonderschmidt lost his race against incumbent Katie Williams, the majority-conservative board’s lone progressive. Williams won by 39 votes in Johnson County, with 50.6%, defeating Vonderschmidt, with 49.4%.
As of Friday, Williams had picked up 16 votes in Miami County, while Vonderschmidt won 18 votes there. If those results stay the same, Williams will have won by 37 votes. Miami County’s canvass is on Friday.
Vonderschmidt submitted an official recount request to the Johnson County election office ahead of Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline, county spokeswoman Jody Hanson said in an email to The Star.
Hanson said a candidate must post a bond for costs of the recount for the request to be considered complete. Vonderschmidt had yet to do that by noon on Thursday. The estimated cost for the recount, Hanson said, is $11,286.
Vonderschmidt did not immediately return The Star’s request for comment.
His race wasn’t the only nail-biter in the Gardner Edgerton district after last Tuesday, when Williams and Vonderschmidt were separated by 29 votes on election night. The at-large race also was also too close to call until officials results were released this week.
Heath Freeman, who like Williams was backed by Democrats, won the at-large race by only 25 votes, receiving 50.3% of the vote, to challenger Threasa Lang’s 49.6%, according to official results. In Miami County, Freeman won an additional 12 votes as of Friday, and Lang had won 21. If those results stay the same, Freeman will have won by 16 votes.
When reached by phone on Thursday, Lang said she had not requested a recount but was considering doing so.
Both Lang and Vonderschmidt appeared on campaign fliers listing “conservatives for Gardner,” including school board and city council candidates.
“The events of the past years, particularly due to COVID, have highlighted the need for greater parental involvement in education. We’ve navigated through mask mandates, remote learning, and divisive concepts like CRT,” Vonderschmidt says on his website, referencing critical race theory, a college-level framework for evaluating the impacts of racism on institutions. It has become a catch-all term for schools’ teachings on race, and the target of conservative politicians who say the concept itself perpetuates racism and division.
“It’s time to refocus on preparing our children for success, and that means harnessing the momentum created by our school board and building on it,” he said on his website.
Williams declined to comment on Thursday.
Two conservative incumbents, Russell Ellis and Jeff Miller, won reelection to the Gardner Edgerton school board in their races last week.
The recount request comes after Democrat-backed candidates largely swept their races across Johnson County last week.
Progressives won four seats on both the Shawnee Mission and Olathe school boards. In Blue Valley, an incumbent slate, including two moderate Republicans and two Democrats, had a strong win over newcomers who campaigned on opposition to the district’s diversity and equity initiatives.
Earlier on Thursday, Joe Waters, assistant county manager, told the Johnson County Board of Commissioners that the county is required to complete a recount within five days.
In local races, the cost of a recount is covered by the candidate requesting it, unless it changes the result of the election, in which the county would absorb the cost, Waters said.
This story was originally published November 16, 2023 at 2:03 PM.
