Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Wednesday said he does not plan to recuse himself from overseeing a possible recount for his state’s Republican primary race for governor, even though he is a candidate in the election.
“Well, if there’s a recount, the Secretary of State doesn’t actually do any counting. The recounting is actually done by county election officials,” Kobach said during an interview on Fox News. “So, really, all the Secretary of State does is just receive the numbers from the county. So there’s not really a need to recuse.”
But Kobach added if his opponent, incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer, requested that he step aside, “We can certainly do that.”
Kobach, as of Wednesday evening, holds a slim 191-vote lead on Colyer with all precincts having reported their results from the Tuesday night contest, according to the Kansas secretary of state’s website.
There is no law that compels Kobach’s recusal, per the Kansas City Star, if Colyer’s team decides to ask for a recount once provisional ballots have been tabulated and they pay the required bond.
The tight race follows President Trump’s Tuesday endorsement of Kobach’s bid for higher office.
Kobach, a Trump ally, led the president’s decommissioned panel on election integrity with Vice President Mike Pence before it was shut down amid numerous legal challenges. His anti-immigration posture also led to his name being floated as a possible Department of Homeland Security secretary before Trump offered the job to now-White House chief of staff John Kelly.
The victor of the GOP primary will face Sen. Laura Kelly, who sailed to an easy win for the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, in November.
