KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Every vote counts, right?
For three Kansas City-area races, that couldn’t be more true.
As the country’s eyes remained peeled to election results in battleground states, a handful of local races are drawing interest for their razor-thin margins.
The closest race of the night likely comes from Johnson County, where in the race to fill the open seat in the Kansas House of Representatives District 16, four votes separate Democrat Linda Featherston and Republican Rashard Young.
Unofficial final results posted Tuesday night by the Johnson County Election Office show Featherson with 6,833 votes and Young with 6,829.
In a Facebook post on her campaign page, Featherston said she wouldn’t be making any declarations until any provisional and any remaining mail-in ballots have been counted.
Young made a similar post on his campaign page as they wait for any remaining outstanding votes to be counted.
The pair are battling to represent a district comprised mostly of Overland Park, centered near Quivira Road and Interstate 435.
Another race in Johnson County is nearly as close, and it could cost Kansas Democrats a seat in the House of Representatives.
Republican challenger Terry Frederick holds an 11-vote lead over incumbent Democrat Jennifer Day in the Kansas House District 48 race.
Unofficial final results posted Tuesday night show Frederick with 6,626 votes to Day’s 6,615 votes.
On his campaign’s Facebook page, Frederick appeared to be taking the close race in stride.
“Well, we won Election Night…by 11 votes,” he wrote. “Cautiously optimistic, but there are still late mail-in and provisional ballots to be counted over the next week.”
The district represents voters in Overland Park on both sides of U.S. 69 roughly between 119th Street and 151st Street.
Across the state line in Jackson County, Missouri, a state House race there is coming down to the wire.
Democratic incumbent Robert Sauls holds a 25-vote lead over Republican challenger Vicki Riley in the Missouri House District 21 race.
Unofficial final results posted Tuesday by the Jackson County Election Board show Sauls with 7,634 votes compared to 7,609 votes for Riley.
Neither candidate had posted anything on their campaign Facebook pages as of late Wednesday morning.
The district represents voters in Independence on either side of Missouri 291 between U.S. 24 and East 35th Street South.
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