Live updates: Abortion rights wins in Kansas in nation’s first post-Roe vote

9:40

The Associated Press called the race for “vote no” at 9:40 p.m. Story here.

8:30 p.m. - Abortion rights takes early lead

Early returns in Kansas favored the “no” side by 28 points points but notably included few results from Sedgwick County and none from Johnson, Kansas’ most populous county.

With just 281 precincts reporting out of 3994, more than 155,000 ballots had been counted— more than a quarter of the total 2018 primary turnout with the bulk of precincts still left to go.

With optimism in the air at the Kansans for Constitutional Freedom party, the main vote “no” group, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids addressed the crowd.

“And I think the Dobbs decision definitely felt like a gut punch to a lot of folks in our community and I know it did for me for sure. But once we caught our breath, we stood up straight, we got to work … it wasn’t easy. But from everything I’ve been seeing, we did it,” said Davids, Kansas’ sole Democrat in Congress.

7:30 p.m. - High turnout

Kansas voters have turned out in historic numbers for the vote, according to election officials.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said anecdotal evidence from polling places indicated turnout could be as high as the 2008 general election, which featured featured the presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 63.3% of Kansans voted in that election.

When asked what the highest turnout for a primary contest was, Schwab wasn’t sure.

“It might be tonight,” he said.

7 p.m.

Voters in Kansas are the first to weigh in on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. in a race that has drawn national eyes as a potential bellwether for how Republican voters will respond to the abortion question without the backstop of federal protections.

While the the state constitutional amendment does not directly ban abortion, it would clear a legal pathway for the GOP-dominated state legislature to severely restrict or ban abortion in the near future.

The vote would overturn a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found the right to terminate a pregnancy in the Kansas Constitution.

More than $12 million poured into the 20-month campaign, making it the most expensive ballot issue in Kansas history. It also saw historically high turnout for a primary election. As of Monday morning the Kansas Secretary of State’s office was reporting three times more advance ballots cast this year than in 2018.When the Legislature’s GOP supermajority placed the amendment on the ballot last year they picked the election most likely to favor the amendment.

August primaries have disproportionately high Republican turnout because Democratic primaries in Kansas are often uncontested.

Weeks before Election Day a poll from a Kansas City based firm predicted a close race, with the amendment passing by a narrow four point margin.

The vote was anti-abortion lawmakers’ response to a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found a right to bodily autonomy, and therefore a right to end a pregnancy, in Kansas’ constitution.

Under the ruling two anti-abortion laws in Kansas - a ban on dilation and evacuation abortions and strict licensure rules - were struck down.

Advocates for the amendment, led by the Value Them Both Coalition, warned Kansans that if the amendment didn’t pass all of Kansas’ other anti-abortion laws would fall. Many, however, have not yet been challenged in court. Anti-abortion organizers routinely wouldn’t answer questions about whether they would seek a ban on abortion.

“The laws we have on the books are truly just sandcastles,” Kansans for Life and Value them Both Coalition spokeswoman Danielle Underwood said during an event last week at Church of the Resurrection, a large Johnson County United Methodist church.

Opponents of the amendment were galvanized by the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in June to overturn Roe and eliminate federal protections for abortion rights. Fundraising from out-of-state increased as eyes turned to Kansas as the first vote on abortion.

The main “vote no” group, Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, campaigned on the argument that lawmakers should not control women’s healthcare choices.

If the amendment passed, they warned, Kansas would quickly ban abortion, following the lead of its neighbors in Oklahoma and Missouri.

“More people are going to turn out to vote because you have a whole population of people who have never had to worry about this for 50 years,” State Rep. Barbara Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat, said last month. “Those people are not going to sit on the sidelines.”

Stephen McAllister, who served as U.S. attorney for Kansas under President Donald Trump, said he has “no doubt” the Legislature will pursue a ban if the amendment passes. The question is whether there will be exceptions, he said.

“To me the only question is will they have exceptions for rape, incest, health, life,” McAllister said. “The other question is whether they will do something more extreme like trying to prevent people from traveling out of state.”

Tuesday afternoon the Kansas Secretary of State’s office said they anticipated turnout to exceed the already high expectations.

Juliana Martinez, 25, has a 2-year-old son. She stood in line with about two dozen other people at Risen Savior Lutheran Church in Wichita.

“I chose to vote no simply because there should not be a restriction set on a woman’s body,” she said.

John Bundrick, 33, also brought his children when he voted early in Olathe.

“We believe that life starts at conception and that every human has this God-given right,” he said. “Obviously, she’s a mother and values what she does with her body but at the same time, having a little one inside is also a body that needs to be respected.”

The Wichita Eagle’s Eduardo Castillo and The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez contributed to this report.