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Record turnout saw jump of 75,000 Johnson County votes in gubernatorial election

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“We have just experienced some real, serious Johnson County history,” said Election Commissioner Ronnie Metsker of the turnout.

Johnson County voters turned out in record fashion for this month’s general election.

Final results from the Johnson County Election Office show that more than 272,000 people cast ballots in the Nov. 7 election and through advanced voting. That’s a turnout of 65 percent — an all time high for a gubernatorial election here.

And, as Election Commission Ronnie Metsker noted ahead of the vote certification Thursday, those numbers are much closer to what one would expect from a presidential election year. In 2016, 296,833 Johnson County residents cast ballots in the fall election — only about 25,000 more than in this year’s midterms.

“Truly, the load and the burden of this election was very much like a presidential election,” Metsker said Thursday. “We have just experienced some real, serious Johnson County history.”

What’s more, the election marked an all-time high for registered voters in the county at 419,403.

In 2014, the gubernatorial election in Johnson County got 194,847 votes, with winner Sam Brownback receiving 94,787. This year, 271,017 people — more than 75,000 above the 2014 total — cast gubernatorial votes. Winner Laura Kelly got 148,082 votes this year.

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

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