Activist offers to pay for Kansas’ recount of abortion vote

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An anti-abortion activist who heads a small hard-right Republican group said he’s offered to pay the expected $229,000 cost of a hand recount of votes from every Kansas county after a decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights. Mark Gietzen, who leads the group Kansas Republican Assembly, told the Kansas City Star on Saturday he wants to pay for the recount that Melissa Leavitt, of Colby, requested because he believes it could change the outcome. The 165,000-vote difference in the election makes that unlikely, however. And there has been no evidence of significant problems with the election. The Kansas Republican Assembly is significantly to the right of the state Republican Party and isn’t affiliated with the GOP-led legislature.