After a general election, a canvassing and a recount, incumbent Crawford County Attorney John Gutierrez trails challenger Michael Gayoso Jr. by just 14 votes with 29 votes yet to be counted.

Those votes, largely military votes faxed in to the Crawford County Clerk’s office, will be counted when the Crawford County Commissioners meet to canvass the new tallies at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Gayoso, R-Frontenac, came into the day leading by 60 votes over Gutierrez, D-Cherokee. But the difference came from the three Countryside Christian Church precincts, where the Crawford County Clerk’s office had determined an error had occurred.

The error came when a programming card in the voting machines in Countryside Christian Church precincts 1, 2 and 6, failed to separate different ballots, counting some selections for the wrong candidate, and calling to question the close Crawford County Attorney’s race.

The error also changed some votes in the Kansas Senate District 13, Kansas Representative District 3 and U.S. Representative District 2 races, but all had victory margins large enough that the swings weren’t enough to change the victor.

The Crawford County Clerk’s office then confirmed the error through testing on Saturday, and brought the information before the Crawford County Commission during canvassing Monday. Citing the need to revive voter confidence in the machines, county commissioners then voted for a county-wide recount, which took place Tuesday.

Four volunteers, including two Republicans, John Minton and Pam Henderson, and two Democrats, Beth Bradrick and Don Rohrbaugh, spent more than eight hours in the Crawford County Commission chambers helping to count the ballots. Any ballots that did not run through the scanner were hand counted.

“I thought the board did an excellent job,” Don Pyle, Crawford County Clerk, said. “I think the results were very accurate.”

The results won’t be final until all the votes are counted and canvassed. Adding a wrinkle, Pyle said military ballots occasionally didn’t include votes in county races because they weren’t able to pay close attention to local races.

“Sometimes, there’s just a vote for president, or something like that,” Pyle said.

If every ballot included a vote for Crawford County Attorney, Gutierrez needs to capture at least 22 of the 29 votes, or 75.9 percent to win.

Gutierrez and assistant county attorneys Brian Duncan and Justen Phelps were present through the process. Gutierrez declined to comment after the count.

Gayoso said Teresa Gladson in his office called the close race.

“She came in after voting and first thing in the morning, she said, ‘It’s going to be a close election. It’s going to come to a recount,’” Gayoso said. “She jinxed me.”

“I really need to ask her what the Powerball numbers will be,” he quipped. “I’m tired of all the counting, because it seems like every time they count, I lose votes.”

After the count, Gutierrez asked Pyle how long it would take for a hand recount and how much money it would cost. Pyle said he needed to figure the cost out.

A hand recount can be passed by a majority of the three Crawford County Commissioners, or a candidate can ask for one. In the latter case, a candidate would put up a bond for the amount needed to conduct the recount. If the result of the election changed, the county would give the money back and would pay for the cost of the recount. If the result didn’t change, then the candidate would be responsible for that cost.

In state races, if a race margin is within one-half of one percent of the overall votes cast, a recount is automatically called, but that rule doesn’t apply to county races.

But a motion for a hand recount likely won’t come from Commissioner Ralph McGeorge, who was present at Tuesday’s recount.

“I think this should be satisfying for both parties unless there was a large margin of error,” McGeorge said.

But a hand recount could still be in the works, according to Bradrick, Crawford County Democratic Party chairwoman.

“There’s a good chance that there will be some degree of discussion about that,” Bradrick said. “When you’re only down by 14, it’s pretty close. I would tell (Gutierrez) that if it’s that close, I would recommend he do it.

“We want to find out what the intent of the voters was.”

After the recount, both parties asked for a list of names on the provisional ballots.

“I think that there should be some (closure) after tomorrow,” Minton, Crawford County Republican Party chairman, said. “We re-scanned every ballot, and the numbers seemed to be where they should have been.

“Those (provisionals) could be the first thing (Democrats) would challenge,” Minton said.

On Monday, Crawford County Commissioners approved accepting 588 of the 762 provisional ballots. Reasons for rejecting the ballots range from a voter lacking registration to voters moving out of the county and not re-registering.

“The whole thing has been pretty nerve-wracking,” Minton said. “We just need to take care of this in the most amicable way possible. As close as this race has been, it could shrink.”

Bradrick said the tight race showed why it was important to make it to the polls.

“Anybody who says that their vote doesn’t count needs to look at this race,” Bradrick said. “Your vote does count.”

• a potential error in Arma did not occur on the recount. The error, discovered by county staff during testing Saturday, cropped up when a scanner was failing to read votes for the Arma Sales Tax question. But the error only occurred that Saturday, while using a backup programming card. The card on Election Day was fine.