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Election Night Roller Coaster Ride for Turk
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Election Night Roller Coaster Ride for Turk
Nov. 5, 2010
By Debbie Van Pelt
Donna and Jacob Turk at the
Lee's Summit Community Church
during the election night watch party.
Tribune Photo / Fred Poese
Jacob Turk lost his third attempt at unseating Congressman Emanuel Cleaver in the House of Representatives 5th District on November 2; but, there was no concession speech from Turk on election night. There were too many uncertainties and rays of hope preventing Turk and his loyal supporters from giving up that night.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Turk’s camp kept hearing stories of inoperable computer systems and voters being turned away when poll workers were unable to verify their registration. When the Tribune contacted the Jackson County Election Board to investigate, we were told (by someone who did not want their identity revealed) that there weren’t any computer problems in their jurisdiction. However, Shelley McThomas of the Kansas City Election Board affirmed there were, in fact, computer problems. She said, “The Missouri Centralized Voter Registration (MCVR) system was down – statewide – from 7:15 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. This meant we had to look up some voters manually, and, if we couldn’t find them we gave them provisional ballots.” McThomas explained that Missouri statutes allow election boards two weeks to certify all votes, including provisional ballots and write-in votes. Official results may not be available until November 16.
The first online returns from the Jackson County Election Board were posted at 7:01 p.m. Tuesday – just one minute after the polls closed in Missouri; and the Turk camp was exhilarated. Of the 3,827 absentee ballots, 57.5% were for Turk, compared to only 40.1% for Cleaver. Returns from Jackson County came in much slower than other metropolitan voting jurisdictions, but by 11:10 p.m., all precincts were counted and Turk had a 57.2% lead over Cleaver’s 39.9%. The 5th Congressional District also includes parts of Cass County, and Turk received 66.7% of the votes there.
To those who didn’t realize Kansas City has its own election board, separate from Jackson County, Turk seemed to have a huge win. The internet was buzzing. By 10 p.m., the Kansas City Election Board reported a different story. Their computers showed that Cleaver had 71.4% of the vote there, to Turk’s 26.5%. Media reports were inconsistent. KMBC TV9 reporter, Micheal Mahoney, posted on his blog shortly after midnight that incumbent Cleaver had only beaten “challenger Jacob Turk by a hair. Cleaver’s margin is 2,800 or so votes and puts his (election) just out of the margin for an automatic recount.” The internet buzz got even louder.
With the margin reportedly in the 2,800 vote range, a recount seemed inevitable, particularly in view of the state’s voter registration computer system being down for more than half the day. Based on this information, Turk’s Facebook fans were dreaming of a recount. However, some of the media reports had been wrong. Even Micheal Mahoney, a well-seasoned political reporter, had misreported. District-wide, Cleaver actually had 53% of the votes, to Turk’s 44%. Cleaver had netted 16,661 more votes than Turk – excluding the provisional ballots, which have yet to be counted.
If a large number of provisional ballots had been issued, perhaps that would still make a difference. Laura Egerdal, Communications Director for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office revealed on Wednesday that Kansas City reported having 975 provisional ballots, while Cass County had reported only six. Jackson County had not yet reported their estimate of provisional ballots to the Secretary of State’s office; but, Tammy Brown of the Jackson County Election Board (JCEB) told the Tribune she estimates they have “about 58” provisional ballots. Brown also confirmed that the JCEB voter registration computers had, in fact, been down most of Election Day, from 6:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. She said that although the computer malfunctions created much more work and stress for them and for voters, she was confident it didn’t affect the outcome of the election. With almost a 17,000 vote shortfall, and only an estimated 1,039 provisional ballots remaining to be counted, it became unlikely a recount would pay off for Turk.
Late Wednesday evening, Turk sent a “thank-you” note to his supporters. He pointed out several reasons he and his campaigners should be proud. They had set a record for the “highest percentage of the vote for a Republican challenger for this district. More impressively, our election was against a tough incumbent.” He went on to say, “We set this standard while operating on a very small budget and without Republican party support.” He told the Tribune, “The Republican party helped their candidates in the 3rd and 4th Districts. They only won one of those seats. If they had given some attention and support to our race, it would have made a difference. But, our grassroots effort shook Cleaver up, and we hope he will now be a more responsive representative of our District.”
Turk did not indicate what his immediate plans are, but hinted that he may try again by asking people to bring their Turk signs to campaign headquarters before it closes this weekend. “You never know what need might arise for them. As my Mama used to say, “better to have ‘em and not need ‘em, than to need ‘em and not have ‘em”.
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